


I've Decided on You

by allweseeislight



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, F/F, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-10-15
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:55:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 34,719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25099519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allweseeislight/pseuds/allweseeislight
Summary: An accidental encounter leads Kara Danvers into a world she never even knew existed. Meanwhile, the Luthor Family has just moved into town. After the death of their eldest son, they set up their company in National City for a new start, and Kara grows infatuated with their daughter Lena, who unbeknownst to her, is hiding a dark secret.
Relationships: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor
Comments: 25
Kudos: 123





	1. The Bite

Kara watched the time tick on the clock. She’d been sitting in the same seat for the past hour. She wondered why Alex wasn’t there yet. She’d said she was coming. Kara drummed her fingers on the desk next to her. She kept doing so until the officer sitting at it said,

“Hey, that’s enough!” She quickly recoiled her hand from the table, “You know Danvers, we’re about to get serious here. This is the second time you’ve been found trespassing. One is a warning, two is a pattern, and three is when you may need to call a lawyer. This behavior can’t continue.”

“Yeah whatever,” she said, “What’s taking my sister so long?”

“Does it look like I know? Now shut it, I’m working,” he said. He returned to his keyboard as there was another clap of thunder. That one rattled the station a bit.

“That was loud,” Kara said. The officer ignored her. Kara sighed and leaned as far back in the chair that the cuff chaining her to the desk allowed for. She was going to be in so much trouble once she got home. It was hours past curfew and she had no clue when Alex was going to get there. Plus, with the storm outside, she was probably stuck in some kind of traffic, “Can I get another phone call?”  
“That isn’t how this works,” he said.

“Please? It’s taking her longer than usual, she could be hurt.”

“It’s National City on a Friday and it’s raining. There are a ton of reasons for her to be late.” Kara rolled her eyes and angrily pulled at the cuffs. 

“Stop that!” he snapped at her, “Some of us have actual work to do, and you’re not helping.”

“Oh poor you,” Kara said crossly. The officer looked like he was going to say something else, but the door opened and Kara’s sister entered. She was soaked and looked very unhappy. Maybe Kara should have called her Mom after all.

“Oh joy, she’s here,” the officer said. He unlocked her cuff and said, “Get out of my sight Danvers.” Kara got up from her seat and stretched her legs. She smiled at her sister.

“Hey sis, how’s Stanford?”

“Don’t,” she said, “I had my first college party tonight, you know? And I was really looking forward to it, but then I had to leave because my dumbass little sister got arrested for breaking and entering into a  _ mall _ ? Why the hell would you do that?” 

“Alex, I can explain-” Kara started, but she was cut off.

“Kara, you’re my sister, and I love you. But I can’t keep coming back to save you. I’m in college, I have a new schedule, new priorities, new friends. I can’t keep dropping everything for you, so I’m done.” Kara was confused.

“Done? What do you mean done?” Alex shook her head,

“I mean you’re on your own from now on. There’s a cab waiting for you outside. I already paid for it, and it’ll take you home. Kara, you’ve gotta straighten up, or you’re gonna get hurt.”

“I know and I will,” Kara said, “This will never happen again, I promise.”

“You said that the last time, and the time before that, oh let’s not forget the time before that. And those were just petty crimes. It’s getting hard to have faith if all you’re doing is upping your game and refusing to take a shred of responsibility. There has to be a line, Kara.”

“I know, and I get that but if you could just listen-” Kara tried to explain.

“I need to go,” Alex said, “I signed all the papers, and Mom will never need to know about this. Now, I will see you for Fall Break, but I gotta go.”

“Why won’t you just listen to me!” Kara shouted at her.

“Because I have! Multiple times, and yet we always end up back here, going back and forth. If I keep listening and keep showing up, the cycle will repeat itself over and over. Now, like I said I need to go, because I have a friend who has been waiting for me for hours, that I need to meet up with. So please take the cab and go home.” A tear formed in Kara’s eyes, which Alex noticed because she said, “Hey, I am not doing this to be mean, I’m doing it because I love you. Remember that.” She gave Kara a comforting squeeze on the shoulder before leaving the station. Kara got her jacket that had been confiscated and put it on. She pulled her phone from the pocket. She saw some texts from Barry and her Mom. She ignored them, she’d deal with it when she got home. She shut her phone off and went outside. She watched Alex get into her cab, and watched it drive away.

“Kara Danvers?” the man in the cab behind it asked.

“That’s me,” she said. She was about to get in when she decided she’d rather walk. She really needed the time to clear her head, “And um, it’s fine. I can just walk home.”

“You sure? The storms are about to get worse.”

“I’m sure. Just go, I’m sure you have other people waiting.”

“Well alright,” he said. He drove away, leaving Kara by herself on the sidewalk. Kara crossed her arms and walked alone in the rain. The thunder was loud, and it made her jump. It took about five minutes for her to regret not taking that cab, but it was too late now. She tried to wave a few down, but none stopped. Not that it mattered. Alex had prepaid that other cab, and Kara didn’t have any money. So she decided to call Barry. She pulled her phone out and was looking him up in her contacts when a car zoomed past, bringing up the gutter water as it did. The water took her phone with it. Kara tried going after it, but nothing. The phone fell into the gutter and down the drain.

“Well that’s just...fantastic,” Kara said. She ran a hand through her head and continued to walk. She was about thirty minutes away from her house, but she knew a shortcut. She was out of the main city on a backroad away from all the lights and noise. The rain had dropped from pouring to a steady fall. Kara hoped that meant the cab driver had been wrong about the storms getting worse, but she was proven wrong when there was another giant clap of thunder that made her jump. She worked on tuning it out, and focused her attention on the path ahead. She continued to walk for a bit, and was getting to a state of being more calm when there was a strike of lightning that went right through the street lamp. Kara yelped as the light flickered and fell in front of her. 

After the lightning, the rain kicked up. Kara broke into a run. She could feel herself slowing down from the buildup of rain in her sneakers. She ended up running off the backroads completely and into the woods. She would be able to get to her neighborhood a little faster since she didn’t have to wait for all the crosswalks. Once in the woods, she allowed herself to take a breather. The rain was making the dirt on the ground turn to mud, and it was starting to clump around her shoes, so the breather didn’t last long. She kept walking, a lot slower now since she had to keep pulling her shoes out of the mud. She was glad she knew where she was going, she cut through these woods a lot. It was really dark though, and she usually used her phone flashlight in times like this. She wrapped her arms around her wet clothes and she moved forward. She couldn’t wait until she was home and she could take these clothes off. She walked in silence as the rain slowed, and was feeling a little better until she heard a branch snap. She whipped around.

“Hello?” she asked. She got no answer. Maybe she’d imagined the sound. She still picked up her pace. She needed to get out of there. The mud on her shoes had dried enough for her to be able to run again. As she broke into a sprint, she could feel the thundering of feet behind her. She was definitely being followed. She picked up the pace, and was nearly out of the wood when she tripped over a log she hadn’t been able to see. She fell to the ground and tumbled down a small hill. Her glasses fell from her face, and she landed with a thump. There was mud all over her body. She opened her eyes and realized she couldn’t see anything from where she was. She shakily pulled herself to her feet, and gulped when she realized she was lost for real. At least whoever had been following her didn’t seem to be there now. 

Finding her glasses would have just been a waste of time, so instead she used her hands to search for a slope in the ground that indicated the hill. When she found it, she pulled herself up to the level she’d started at. She was about to start walking, but she didn’t make it far before hearing a monstrous growl. She screamed as she was pinned to the ground. The thing, whatever it was, stared her down with deep, dark eyes. Kara could see saliva dripping from his mouth. It was an awful sight. She screamed as it opened his mouth, and a rush of pain came over her as she felt teeth sink into the side of her stomach. She rolled around frantically, trying to push away the attacker, but after biting her, it left. Kara quickly pulled herself to her feet and ran for all she was worth. She didn’t stop, even though the pain was begging her to. She ran until she was out of the woods and on the same backroads she’d been trying to cut around. She collapsed on the road once she got to it. 

She couldn’t really see the bite, but she could feel the wet blood coming out of it. She lay on the road for a bit, gasping for air in an attempt to catch her breath. She was pretty sure she’d be able to just fall asleep on the road by there, and was contemplating it until she heard the frightening sound of a car coming. Kara quickly attempted to pull herself back to her feet, but it was hard. She grunted in pain but was able to pull herself up, and just as the car came close enough to hit her, they quickly swerved out of the way and drove off.  _ Assholes, _ Kara thought. Though she guessed she kind of deserved it for laying in the middle of the road. Plus it was nice to see signs of life. There was a sign on the side of the road. A familiar one that said “Welcome to Midvale.” She’d made it home. 

Kara went in the direction the car had gone and stopped when she saw the familiar shops and other buildings that indicated she was close to her neighborhood. She eventually did make it back to her house, and was quiet as she slipped inside. The time on the clock said two thirty seven, and all the lights were off. She flicked one on, and got a real look at herself in the mirror by the door. She looked nearly unrecognizable. Kara kicked her shoes out of the house entirely so she wouldn’t track mud in, but it was still on her socks and on her legs. She was kicking herself for wearing a skirt, but it was late August, so it had been hot before the storm. She took her socks off too and left them on the porch with her sneakers before closing the door. She then went into the kitchen and opened the cabinets, pulling out some gauze and bandages for the bite. She washed her feet off with some paper towels before walking up the carpeted steps and going into her room. 

She went to her bathroom and pulled her shirt up, showing the bite in all its ugliness. It was blurry without the glasses, but she could see the jagged teeth marks and the blood coming out. She traced her finger over the marks from the bite and winced at the pain. She decided to take a shower first so she could wash it out. The hot water wasn’t fun on the bite, but it was nice getting all the dirt off of her body. She tried not to throw up as the water turned red from her blood. She got out of the shower, put her pajamas on, and proceeded to tend to the bite. She patched it up the best she could and pulled her shirt over it. It bulged a little from all the padding under there. Kara turned the light in the bathroom off before getting into bed. It was Friday night, which meant no school in the morning, but she knew her Mom was going to have words for her. She was surprised she hadn’t come to talk to her. She must have heard Kara come in.  _ Oh well, morning problem _ , Kara thought. She got under her covers, and shifted a bit so her bandages wouldn’t be pressed against the mattress. She thought about the thing that had attacked her. She hadn’t seen it well, but she knew it had to have been a wild animal. A fox, maybe a coyote. But those woods weren’t known for having predators inside them. Kara usually felt safe when she would cut through them to go home. So what had changed tonight? She had no clue, and she didn’t want to stay up thinking about it. It was stressing her out. So instead, she went to sleep, hoping everything would be figured out by the morning.

While Kara slept, a car was pulling into a mansion a few neighborhoods over. The car approached the front of the house, and a woman stepped out.

“This is the place,” she said, “Get out.” She heard the door open, and the girl came out. Her husband’s bastard daughter.

“Why here?” the girl asked timidly.

“Your father has an office that he’s asked me to run while he is overseas,” she said, “Which I’ve explained to you two times, why must I a third?”

“You don’t have to, Mother,” she said, “I just don’t understand why I had to come with you. I was fine in my old school.”

“You know very well why,” her Mother said, “With what happened to your brother, excuse me for wanting to make sure my now only child is safe.”

“Excuse me for not thinking you saw me that way.”

“Get inside, Lena. I have a big day tomorrow, as do you,” she said, ignoring the previous statement.

“Me?” Lena asked, “What do I have to do?”

“With your brother no longer with us, you are the sole heir to Lionel’s empire,” her Mom said, “The sooner we get you in these meetings, the sooner you’ll earn the trust of the board, and when the time comes for you to step up, you’ll have people to back you.” So that was why she was here. Made sense.

“Fine,” Lena said, “When is the meeting?”

“Tomorrow 9 o’clock. I’d get to bed soon, it’s nearing three,” her Mother said. She then closed the door of the car and went inside. Lena pulled her suitcase out of the trunk and followed her mother in. The house had a very unwelcoming aura. She turned the lights on to see if that would help a bit. It didn’t. The hallway had a few family photos hung up, with Lena not in any of them. Not that she minded. It wasn’t like she wanted people to know who her family was. Lionel Luthor was responsible for displacing half of the community of Metropolis, her home city. When she became CEO, Lena planned on undoing his wrongs. She wanted LuthorCorp to do good, not ruin lives.

“Mother, where is my room?” Lena asked her.

“I don’t care, just pick whichever room you want,” she said before leaving to most likely find a bottle of whiskey. She’d been complaining of a headache on the whole ride there ever since their car had needed to swerve out of someone’s way earlier. She’d been angry about that for the rest of the drive. She hadn’t been happy with Lena taking the wheel to move them out of the way, but what had she wanted? If they’d hit that person, they’d be in trouble. Not that she cared. As far as Lillian Luthor was concerned, all Lena could do was wrong. Lena picked up her suitcase and took it up the stairs. She wasn’t sure which room to take, so she decided to pick the one in the farthest corner of the house where she wouldn’t be too disturbed. She found one at the end of the hallway and opened the door. Like the rest of the house, it was extremely unwelcoming, but it would do. Not that it mattered much anyway. Lena doubted they’d be staying long anyway. Lillian had made it clear that this living situation was very temporary, and that they would be back in Metropolis before they knew it. Then Lena would be able to go back to her old school, where her best friend Andrea was and where she didn’t have to worry about her messy family. All she had to do was impress a few men in suits. That wouldn’t be too hard.

Lena opened her suitcase and put some clothes in the dresser on the wall across from her bed. She didn’t unpack everything. As long as she believed this was temporary, that’s what it was. She looked at her school forms looking at her on the top. National City Technical High School. At least it sounded like they took STEM seriously. Though she doubted the facilities would be as good. Never mind that though, this wasn’t permanent. Lena heard her mother come upstairs, go into a room, and shut the door. That meant she’d be out for the rest of the night. And she knew she wouldn’t come in to check on her, she wasn’t that kind of Mom. Lena slid out of her nice boots and put on a pair of sneakers. There was still drizzle outside and she didn’t want to ruin the shoes she planned on wearing the next day at the meeting. She then slipped out of her new shoes, out the door, and was out in the night.

The rain felt nice on her skin. She lifted her arm and watched the ran roll down on her exposed arm. The still warm air of August felt surprisingly nice, even with the rain. Lena left the front yard of the house and was now in the neighborhood. The rest of the houses had a way more homey vibe than Lena’s. Doghouses in the front yard, mailboxes with cute pictures painted on them, toys scattered everywhere. Lena never got the chance to grow up in a place like that. Not that she was jealous or anything, she just felt a little sad. There was a difference. Lena left the neighborhood and walked for a bit until she got to a place with some shops. This town, Midvale. It definitely had a small town vibe to it. Lena found that not too surprising considering how close it was to the city. She guessed this place was just for the locals. She saw a twenty four hour diner at the end of the block. The lights were on, and she could see a waitress inside reading a magazine. Lena hoped she wouldn’t mind having a customer. She was famished.

Lena opened the door and the waitress looked up from her magazine. She didn’t look too happy to be getting a customer, but it didn’t stop her from plastering a smile on her face and welcoming Lena in.

“You can sit anywhere you’d like,” she said, “I’ll get you a menu.” 

“Thank you,” Lena said, even thought she already knew what she wanted to eat. While she waited for her menu, she looked around at the diner. From this place alone, she could tell the people of Midvale were close. There were pictures on the walls of people in town and their families. There was a wall full of kid’s drawings. It could make even Lena smile. The waitress came back and said,

“Here you are, ma’am.” She placed the menu in front of Lena, “Holler at me when you’re ready.” She went back to her post behind the counter, and Lena pretended to look through the menu. She contemplated eating one of the many dishes she was skimming by, but she knew that wouldn’t fill her up. She looked around the diner. It was empty, and it didn’t seem like anybody was going to be coming anytime soon. She got up from her seat and walked over to the waitress, “Oh hun, you don’t have to come up here. I can come to you.” Lena looked in the eyes of the waitress. They were tired, but kind. Lena could tell that she was a good person.

“Can I ask you something?” Lena asked.

“Um, sure. Do you have a question about the menu?” she asked. Lena looked her right in the eye, keeping strong eye contact.

“What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?” The waitress looked confused at first, so Lena kept her gaze fixed, “In your whole life. The worst thing?”

“I drank and then drove. With my son in the car,” she said.  _ That was pretty bad, right? Her son could have gotten hurt. _ “I almost hit another car. We’re lucky to have both survived.”

“Do you feel guilty about it?”

“Yes, of course. It was the biggest mistake of my life, I’ll always feel guilty. But I’m doing my best. I go to AA every day, I haven’t touched a bottle since. I’ve kept this job for five years now, a new record. And just last year, I regained custody of my son.”

“That’s amazing,” Lena said. The woman nodded, then a hint of confusion crossed her face,

“I’m sorry. What were we talking about?” She’d forgotten just in time.

“Just that I wanted the pancakes. Blueberry,” Lena said.

“Coming right up, hun,” she said. She left, and Lena took a deep breath. She couldn’t go through with it. That woman was a good person. She waited at the counter for the pancakes. The waitress came back, put them in front of her, and asked if she wanted anything else.

“No, this is enough, thanks,” Lena said. She took the syrup she was offered and poured it all over the stack in front of her. She cut it up and took a bite. It tasted...good. It was the first real food she’d had in a long time that tasted that way, “These are delicious!”

“I know, right? Chef’s specialty. And only for 4.99 after midnight,” she said with a wink. Lena laughed, “You know, I usually know all of my customers, but I’ve never seen you before.”

“Oh, my Mother and I just came into town today,” Lena said.

“Ah, I see. From where did you come?”

“Metropolis,” Lena said.

“Big city girl, nice. Are you living in town or National City?”

“In town, but I’m going to school in National City.”

“NCU?”

“No, the Technical High School. I’m 17,” Lena said. The woman looked surprised and went,

“Oh! Shouldn’t you be at home then, sweetie? It’s really late, and I don’t want your Mother to be out looking for you.”

“Trust me, she isn't worried,” Lena said, taking another bite.

“No offense to her, but I would be,” the waitress said, “Is there anyone I can call?”

“It’s okay, I’m fine,” Lena said, “I don’t live too far away from here anyway. Plus, I would like to finish these pancakes while I’m here.”

“Alright, but you let me know. I need to take out some trash, but like I said, holler if you need me. My name is Tessa,” she said.

“I’m Lena,” Lena said.

“It’s good to meet you, Lena,” Tessa said, “Will I be seeing you around here?”

“Yeah, I guess so,” Lena said. Tessa left to get the trash, and Lena finished her pancakes. She said goodbye to Tessa on the way out, and left to go home. She was still hungry, but she hadn’t found what she wanted yet. She was walking down a street when she heard a faint crash. She ended up pushing herself against a wall as a man running after a woman passed. He was harassing her. He had his beefy hand on her arm and he wasn’t letting go. Lena knew she had to intervene. The woman would get hurt if she didn’t. She moved from her wall and yelled, “Hey!” Both people turned to her, “Get away from her.”

“Does it look like this has anything to do with you? Mind your own business, bitch,” the man said. Oh how Lena hated that word. Before anyone on the street could register what was happening, Lena had the man pinned against a wall. She turned to the girl, 

“Run!” The girl left without as much as a thank you, but Lena didn’t care. The man looked scared, but he wasn’t backing down.

“What’s your problem? Get the hell off of me!” he shouted.

“Tell me something,” Lena said, looking him in the eye, “What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?” The man looked at her and answered with,

“I murdered my ex wife.”

“Why?”

“Because I wanted to!” he basically shouted in her face. Yep, this was it.

“Then I guess I’m in luck,” Lena said, “Because you’re exactly the trash I was looking for.”

“What are you…” the man started to ask, but his asking turned to a scream as Lena buried her teeth into his neck.

An hour had passed. Lena felt dirty. She’d probably done that woman a favor, but it didn’t feel good. She’d left the man passed out on the side of the street. He’d make it, but he wouldn’t remember her face or what she’d done, so that was what mattered. His blood stained her mouth and her shirt. She’d need to burn everything before Mother woke up in the morning. Lena had been walking around aimlessly for a bit, and she knew she’d have to get home soon, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t walk through the doors of the unwelcoming mansion and pretend things were normal. She usually felt this way after nights like this, but something about this being her first night in a new place made her feel weird. She probably should have waited, but it was too late to go back now. She continued to walk. She attempted to calm her breathing. She took breaths in and out over and over again until her breaths came out further apart from one another. She was fine, everything was going to be okay.

Her thoughts drifted back to the man. His blood had been good, and she was now full, but at what cost? She didn’t kill him, so he could just as easily go back and hurt another woman. Plus, that woman had seen her, and Lena hadn’t erased her memory. Had she not been careful enough? She prayed she had been. The good thing going for her right now was that she’d picked a rather muscular man, and he’d had at least a foot on her, so no one would have believed she could have done all that, right? She didn’t know anything for sure, but it was starting to hit her that she didn’t look good right now, walking around at four in the morning covered in blood, so she picked up her pace. She entered her neighborhood and got to her house. She opened the door and turned the light on. Mother had some boxes in the foyer, but other than that, it was just as empty as before. 

Lena ascended the staircase and went to her new room. She looked around for a bathroom and saw the door by her dresser. She went inside and turned on the sink, washing all the blood from her hands and face. She took off her shirt and placed it in one of the trashbags she’d brought with her. She washed the area around her neck, and though it wasn’t stained, she added her bra in with the shirt, and pulled a T-shirt on from her suitcase. She needed to get rid of all her clothes from tonight. She threw them all in a trash bag and changed into her pajamas. She grabbed the bag and went to the kitchen. They had to have matches somewhere. It wasn’t like they were the first people who’d ever lived in this house. She looked through the drawers until she found a set of matches. She went into the backyard and put the bag on the ground. The rain was still coming down, but not strong enough to put out the fire. Lena watched her clothes burn. She waited with them until the flames died down, and all that was left were burnt remains. She kicked them out of sight, and watched the smoke go up into the night sky. 

The rain was starting to get heavy, so she went back inside. She kicked off her sandals and closed the door. She then went up to her room, washed her feet off, and got into bed. The bed was comfortable, but she couldn’t sleep, so she stared at the ceiling, counting the cracks in it. She could see perfectly in the dark, which made entertaining herself at night pretty easy. She counted seven big cracks, and twenty five little small ones. She then turned to her clock and saw that it was five thirteen. She had to wake up in four hours. Less than that, actually. The meeting was at nine, which meant she’d have to be up at eight. She was glad she couldn’t get sleepy. She continued to count things she saw around her room. There were four uneven splotches of paint on the wall across from her, her dresser had five knobs. She counted until it got boring. She looked back at the ceiling, and moved an arm behind her head so she could rest on it. She wondered how the meeting would go in the morning. Her late night escapades hadn’t left her much time to actually process what Mother had been saying. 

For Lena’s whole life, it was expected that her brother Lex would take over the company once Father stepped down, but now things were different. No one could have expected Lex to fall prey to a vicious attack while camping with his college friends the night before their graduation. No one expected the police to come, take off their hats, and say the body had been unrecognizable. And no one had expected Father to leave her and Mother to their own devices while he worked with Luthor Corp in the Maldives. And of course, Mother herself would not have expected that she had to live with the reality that Lena would be the one taking over the company. One of her worst fears coming to life. In Lena’s defense, it wasn’t like she had wanted this, either. But it was her responsibility now, and she wasn’t going to back down. She wanted to make the company do good, and she didn’t want to stop until she’d accomplished that. But there was the truth, nagging at her like an itch she couldn’t scratch. The truth that only she knew, which was that there was no way a vampire could make it as a CEO.


	2. The New Girl in Town

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara and Lena meet for the first time, and Kara makes a scary discovery

When Kara woke up in the morning, it was a rude awakening. She felt the force of someone jumping on her bed, and opened her eyes to her best friend.

“Barry, what the hell?” she asked him.

“I’ve been calling you all morning and you weren’t picking up, so I came over. Your Mom wants to talk to you by the way,” he said. Kara got up and reached for her glasses on her bedside table, only for them to not be there. It was then she remembered them falling off her face while she tumbled down a cliff, then remembered climbing up the cliff, where she’d been met by that god awful creature. She looked to her side, where she could still feel the bandage. The bite wasn’t aching right now, so that was good.

“Yeah sorry, my phone broke after I was arrested...after you ditched me, jerk! We were supposed to go into that store together!”

“I know, and I can explain. I was going to follow you in, but then Iris called me saying she was in trouble, so I was gonna just call her and tell her I’d be there, but she sounded pretty distressed, and I thought you had the situation under control, so I went to see her.”

“Is she okay?”

“Oh yeah, she’s fine. Her car broke down but it was nothing too serious. I waited with her until Triple A came and then after she got home, I called you and you didn’t answer. Then I went to your house and you weren’t there, so your Mom called you and you still didn’t pick up, and I wanted to wait with her for you but she said it was fine, and she’d let me know when you got home, so she did a few minutes ago and now I’m here.” Barry was talking way too fast for Kara to fully comprehend what he was saying, but she definitely got the gist. Oh her Mom was about to be hella mad. That should have been her first concern, but it ended up being why Barry was so dressed up.

“Barry, why are you in a suit?” she asked him.

“Oh it’s for-” he started to explain, but the door opened and Kara’s mother Eliza entered. She was also dressed up. Kara was about to give her the multiple apologies she had scrambling in her head, but her Mom said,

“Kara, get dressed. We need to leave soon. Barry, would you like some breakfast?”

“Oh yeah, totally,” he said. Kara was confused.  _ Get dressed for what? _ Her only plans for the day were to call Alex back somehow and apologize again, and then do some homework. Neither of those included dressing up.

“Get dressed for what?”

“Well I have a meeting today with new investors, and since I clearly can’t trust you to be by yourself, you’re coming with me. Barry wanted to tag along for educational purposes, so I’m letting him come. We need to leave in thirty minutes so hurry up.”

“But Mom, I-”

“Twenty times, Kara. That’s how many times I called you last night. Do you know how worried that made me?”

“I can assume,” Kara said. Her head was spinning. She had so many people to apologize to and to give explanations to, but her mind was still completely focused on that thing that had attacked her last night, and she just wanted to talk to Barry about it.

“Get dressed, we’re talking about this later,” she said. She left the room, and Barry gave Kara an apologetic look before following her out. Kara pulled herself out of bed and went to the bathroom to change the dressing. She removed the bandage, expecting to see the gnarly cut, so she almost screamed when she saw that the skin was healed. Kara looked at the bandage. There was still blood on it, but other than that, the bite was healed. The blood on the bandage was the only indicator that she’d been bitten at all. Kara had never been so confused. She’d expected the bite to still be there for days, even weeks!

“Kara! If you don’t come down soon you won’t be able to eat!” Mom shouted from downstairs, pulling Kara from her panic.

“One second Mom!” she shouted back. She threw the bandages in her trash can and ran to her closet to find a dress to wear. She found the first one she found, took off her pajamas, and pulled it on. She was hastily putting her hair into a braid on her way out the door and downstairs, where Barry was happily munching on blueberry pancakes. Kara hoped that her Mom making her favorite breakfast meant she wasn’t really that mad at her, but she was once again proven wrong when she just gave her a plate without saying anything.

“I need to talk to you about something. Alone,” Kara said to Barry in a hushed tone once her Mom’s back was turned.

“Yeah of course, we can slip away at this meeting” he said.

“Doubtful, she’s not going to let me out of her sight.”

“We’ll find a way. What happened? Is something wrong.”

“I don’t know,” Kara said. The bite was healed, so that was good right? But how had it healed so fast? It was 8:30, she still had a huge bite on her side only six hours ago. Things didn’t heal like that. She took a bite of her pancake, allowing the familiar taste to make her feel better for just a second. After she and Barry finished, Kara remembered her shoes were ruined, so she ransacked the hall closet for another pair of boots while Barry and her Mom cleaned up. She had just finished lacing them by the time the two of them came to the door.

“You ready, Kara?” Mom asked. She nodded, and they went outside, where Kara’s dirtied shoes and socks were still on the porch.

“I’ll clean those when we get back,” Kara said.

“Those are done,” she said, “Throw them away when we get back, you can just wear your boots to school on Monday.”

“But I need sneakers for field hockey practice.”

“You can wear Alex’s old pair for now. I just bought you those sneakers last week, it’s not my fault you couldn’t take care of them.”  _ Well damn, she was still mad. _ Barry awkwardly looked at his feet, while Kara angrily crossed her arms.

“That’s not fair, I can’t control the weather,” Kara said.

“No but you can control when you come home, and you can also control using your phone to call someone to pick you up instead of walking alone in the rain.”

“Fine, I’ll just clean these ones.”

“Kara, the tips are cut open and the soles are close to falling off. There’s no saving these, Alex’s should be fine for practice.”

“But-”

“Kara if we’re late because you’re arguing with me about shoes, then you won’t even get Alex’s sneakers, now get in the car.” Kara refrained from rolling her eyes and went to the car. Barry climbed in next to her and said,

“Hey, don’t pick a fight, she's already on edge.”

“I know, I’m just scared,” Kara said.

“Does this have to do with whatever you need to tell me?” She nodded, “Don’t be scared. Whatever it is, we’re gonna figure it out, okay?”

“Okay,” Kara said, but Barry’s support wasn’t good enough for her at the moment. She leaned her head against the window and waited for her Mom to start the car. Barry tried talking to her during the ride, but she wasn’t in much of a mood. Both her Mom and Alex were mad at her, she had a bite that mysteriously healed, and for some reason, she just felt off. It was like adrenaline was rising in her, and the slightest things were ticking her off. She hadn’t meant to fight with her Mom just now, but for some reason, she hadn’t been able to calm down. And she was never like that. She could be brazen and she made rash decisions, but she could always control her temper. So what had happened?

“Kara, are you okay?” Barry asked. Kara looked towards Barry and her Mom and realized they were both looking at her with concern.

“Honey you were hyperventilating, is everything okay?” Mom asked. Kara could almost hear her heart pounding in her chest. She’d been freaking out without even noticing.

“Uh yeah, I’m fine. Sorry Mom,” she said, “You can keep driving.”

“We’re here,” she said, “C’mon you two, we’re right on time.” The three of them got in the car, and Kara found themselves staring at a tall building. LuthorCorp was written on the side.

“Whoa, your meeting is with Lionel Luthor?” Barry asked. 

“Not him. With his wife,” Mom said, “Kara, you ready?”

“Uh huh,” Kara said, wiping sweat from her brow. She didn’t even know why she was sweating so much. It wasn’t even that hot!

“Come on, let’s get you inside,” Mom said, wrapping an arm around Kara. Barry shut Kara’s car door and followed them inside the building. 

“Whoa, check out the elephant statue,” Barry said, “How much do you think that cost?”

“At least a million,” Kara said, “Look at it, it’s fine marble. And it’s pink!”

“Oooh, can we touch it?” Barry asked. He walked towards it, but Eliza pulled him back.

“I’m going to need both of you to behave, or we’re going to get kicked out, and if this deal doesn’t go through, my future projects are toast. Understood?”

“Understood,” the both recited.

“Very good,” she said. She walked towards the elevator, and the three of them went up to the top floor. Kara could feel the sweat returning and she hastily wiped it away. This was such a bad look. The elevator door opened, and Kara stepped out. Her head felt heavy, and now everything was spinning. She wiped her eyes. Was she drunk? Impossible, she hadn’t even drank last night. Maybe Mom had slipped something in the pancakes. As she rubbed her eyes, she didn’t even notice the girl coming towards her, which led to a very unfortunate collision.

Lena didn’t even notice what was happening until she was on the ground. She’d been in a rush to meet her mother when a girl had crashed into her. 

“Oh my God, I am so sorry,” the girl said. She was basically on top of Lena, and she was strong, like really strong. Lena looked into her eyes. They were kind eyes. The girl had her hands on Lena’s shoulders, so she removed them and stood up. She extended her arm to Lena and said, “Here, let me help you up. I’m so sorry.” Lena took her hand and was on her feet. Everyone in the room was looking at her, and she could feel her mother’s glare on her back.

“It’s fine,” Lena said, and it was almost inaudible, but the girl seemed to hear, because she smiled at her and said,

“It wasn’t, but thanks for not being mad. Again, really sorry.” The girl walked away from Lena, joining a woman and boy by the elevator. The woman checked her over, and Lena heard her go, “Mom, I’m fine, I was just a little disoriented.” So that was her Mother. Lena watched her dote on her. Her Mother would never do that for her. In fact, she knew her Mother was about to scream at her for embarrassing her like that. She felt her Mother’s rough hand on her arm pulling her back.

“What the hell was that?” she asked her.

“It wasn’t my fault! She just came at me,” Lena said. She used her strength to easily pry her Mother’s hand off of her, and she rubbed the nail markings away.

“You’re an embarrassment, Lena,” Mother said, “Fix your hair, we need to go in soon.”

“Yeah, whatever,” Lena said.

“Don’t you take that tone with me, young lady,” she said before walking off. Lena dug her fingernails into her palms and took a breath. She could do this. She released her fingers and ran them through her hair, pushing loose strands back behind her ears and making sure her half ponytail was in place. Once she felt ready, she looked and saw the girl staring at her, a look of concern on her face. Had she heard what happened? No, she couldn’t have. She was far enough for Lena to be able to hear her, but she shouldn’t have been able to hear Lena. She decided to forget about the girl and go with her mother to the meeting, only for the girl to follow her.  _ Crap, she was going to the meeting too _ . Lena kept her gaze off the girl and went to join her mother by the head of the table. The girl sat next to the boy she’d come in with by two chairs near the door. Lena guessed that she’d been dragged there. She looked very uninterested, but it wasn’t like Lena could blame her. She didn’t want to be there either. The girl’s mother sat down and presented her case. She was a scientist who needed a loan from the board. The same board that Lena was supposed to impress. She’d heard them laughing at her when she’d been on the ground. They were definitely not going to take to her replacing Father.

Lena knew she should have been paying attention to the woman giving a presentation, all she heard was her introducing herself as Eliza, but her eyes never strayed from her daughter, who was tucking a strand of hair behind her ear while the boy next to her played with his tie. They looked like they were making jokes at Mr. Simms and his big moustache. Lena moved some hair behind her ear so she could listen better to their whispered conversation.

“He looks like Mario,” the boy was saying, and the girl said, 

“It’s a me, Mario,” in probably the worst Italian accent Lena had ever heard, but it didn’t stop her from laughing. Unfortunately for her, she’d laughed a little too hard. She could feel her Mother’s glare on her. Oh the talking to she would get when they got home. She ignored her Mother and focused her attention back on the kids. The boy was asking the girl why she wasn’t wearing her glasses since she always complained that contacts were too itchy. The girl looked flustered at first, and she heard her whisper, “I’m not wearing my contacts.”

“Then no wonder you crashed into that girl. You must have been unable to see her,” the boy said, “Did your glasses break last night?”

“Yeah, they fell in the gutter,” the girl said.

“Well unlike your shoes, your Mom will definitely want to replace those. Maybe we can convince her to buy some shoes too,” he said. The girl laughed. They looked like they were having fun. Lena wished she could sit with them instead of with Mother.

“While I do find your venture intriguing, I don’t understand how we can help you,” Mother said, breaking Lena from her fixed gaze on the girl she’d crashed into.

“Oh, well my proposition requires an insight into a project Mr. Luthor was working on,” the woman said, “I’m sure you remember it from a few years ago. The mutation project? He was creating technology to heal wounds to help soldiers coming from war.” Lena held in a scoff. Father hadn’t cared for any soldiers, he’d just created the tech to improve his image after Lex had been caught on camera driving drunk. And Father would have done anything to protect Lex.

“Oh yes, I remember,” Mother said, “How does your work coincide with his?”

“It’s kind of an extension,” the woman said, “You see, basically-” she was cut off when her daughter started coughing violently, “Excuse me, just one second.” She got up from the table to go check on her. When Lena had been seven, Mother had taken her and Lex to a meeting. Lena had gone to a sleepover the night before and had consumed ungodly amounts of sugar, and she used to get motion sick, so immediately after walking out, she’d thrown up everywhere. Needless to say, Mother had been unhappy and Lena hadn’t been able to go to a sleepover ever again. And of course, Mother hadn’t even made an effort to check on her. Not like that girl’s mother was checking on her now, with a hand on her back, patting it until she stopped coughing. Lena heard the girl ask if she could step outside for some water. The mother nodded and said,

“Of course, take Barry with you.” So the boy was Barry, and the mother was Eliza. Now she just needed the girl’s name.

“Lena Kieran Luthor if you don’t stop staring and start paying attention I assure you, you will regret it,” came her Mother’s harsh voice.

“Sorry,” Lena said. She wasn’t, but she didn’t want to fight. The girl left with Barry, and Eliza returned to give the rest of her proposition. Lena focused her attention back on the proposition, and was able to keep it there for about a minute.

“Is something wrong?” Eliza asked, and it took Lena a second before she realized that the woman was talking to her. Mother looked like she was going to strangle her.

“Uh no, nothing is wrong,” Lena said.

“You don’t seem very interested,” Eliza continued, “Is there a problem?” She wasn’t asking it as a way to call Lena out, like Mother would do when asking the same question. She was asking it as someone who genuinely wanted to know if Lena had a problem with it.

“I um, there’s not really a problem,” Lena said, but it came out quieter than she wanted. Eliza was giving her an encouraging look, so she asked, “Actually, do you mind if I stand up and talk?”

“Absolutely not, please,” Eliza said, “The floor is yours.” Lena ignored her Mother’s pleas for her to sit down as she went to stand in front of the woman and the board.

“I believe that you want to make a difference,” Lena said to the woman, “That’s the best thing that any of us can do. I just want to make sure your intentions are pure. Since this will be my company once I finish high school, I can’t have any faulty investors.”

“You’re an insightful young lady, aren’t you?” Eliza asked. Lena nodded, and she could feel her Mother smiling at her in the background. Lena was finally doing something she’d asked. She was presenting herself in a way that made her look like she knew what she was doing. And in front of the board, that was all that mattered.

“Yes, yes I am,” Lena said.

“Well, you don’t need to worry about any ulterior motives from me. I can assure you, my research is genuine. And if my word isn’t enough, here.” Eliza pulled out a folder and gave it to her, “You can read these papers. It outlines everything I’ve done, and everything I plan to do.”

“Thank you,” Lena said, taking the papers from her. She went back to sit with her Mom, who quietly murmured,

“Not bad Lena, not bad at all.” Her gaze was on one of the Board Members, who had an impressed look on his face. Lena was doing it, she was winning them over. That should have been her main focus, but now that she wasn’t talking to Eliza, her thoughts were unable to stray from her daughter who was somewhere in the building, doing God knows what.

Kara and Barry had left the room, and were now in the girl’s bathroom a floor down.

“Kara, I don’t think I should be in here,” Barry said. Kara nodded and said,

“Yeah yeah, I know, but we’ll be quick. Look, I don’t know how to explain this, but last night after I left the police station, I cut through the woods to get home fast because it was raining and my phone was broken, and usually those woods aren’t bad, I’ve never gotten lost in them or anything, so I figured I’d be fine. But uh, when I was in pretty deep, I heard a rustling noise, and it sounded like someone was following me, so I picked up the pace, but I tripped and fell, and when I was on the ground, this thing...I don’t know what it was supposed to be. It looked like a wild animal, like maybe a mountain lion? I don’t know, but that thing, it bit me, and hard. I had a giant bite on my side, it was terrible.”

“Oh my God, can I see? Not to be weird, just to make sure it’s not infected. I’ve been watching so many hours of medical drama, and you can tell when a wound us infected, it looks like-”

“That’s not gonna matter, because when I woke up this morning, it was gone!” Kara lifted her dress up, glad she was wearing tights, not that she felt awkward since it was just Barry, but this was a private bathroom that anyone could walk into.

“Are you sure you got bitten?” Barry asked, “There isn’t even a scar.”

“Yes, I can show you the bloody bandages in my bathroom to prove it,” Kara said, “There was an animal and it bit me and the bite healed. Plus, to make things weirder, I’m not wearing my glasses because they broke last night, but I can see you. I can see you clearly, even better than I could  _ with _ the glasses. And earlier, after I crashed into that girl, she was all the way on the other side of the room, and I could hear her getting yelled at by her Mom. Could you?”

“No, they were too far away.”

“Well for me it felt like they were right in front of me. I could hear them just as clearly as I’m hearing you now.”

“Oh. That is...not normal.”

“Trust me, I realize that. What do I do, Barry? I’m so confused. I don’t know what’s going on, and I’m scared.”

“I think we gotta go to the source. The woods,” Barry said, “Maybe whatever bit you is still there, and maybe there are more of them.”

“Do not say that, that’s just terrifying,” Kara said, “And besides, I doubt we’ll find anything in the woods in the daytime. Plus, you could get bitten too, and we still don’t know if this bite is poisonous, or if it could kill me.”

“Then we gotta go to the doctor!”

“And tell them what? That I had a bite that magically healed and now I can see and hear way better than I ever have before? They’d think I was crazy.”

“Then...then we google, we’ll look up your symptoms and find something, yeah we’ll do that.” Barry pulled his phone out and said, “Okay, so we’ve got bitten by an animal, super hearing, and enhanced sight.” Kara tried not to laugh as Barry typed it in. He was being silly. Google would probably agree with her on that. Barry finished typing everything in and said, “Hmm...all we’ve got here are old folk tales about lycanthropy.”

“What’s that?” Kara asked.

“Lycanthropy? Oh, it’s stupid. It’s just a folk tale about people turning into wolves.”

“What?” Kara asked.

“Yeah, it’s just kid stuff. But don’t worry about it, that kind of stuff doesn’t even exist. And it’s definitely not what this is.”

“What are those folk tales about? Like, how do they start?”

“Well they start when someone gets bitten by a wolf, and then all this stuff happens to them like they get really strong, and then eventually they turn into a…” he trailed off.

“Let me guess, a wolf?” she asked. Barry nodded, “Great, that’s just...that’s just great! Dammit!” Kara said. A rush of anger came over her, and her fist collided with the wall, “Gah!” Kara looked at the wall in front of her. There was a giant dent in it. Kara looked at her hand, expecting to see a massive bruise, which she did see. For about two seconds. After that, the bruise slowly faded away until her knuckles were as good as new, “Holy crap, Barry.”

“Yeah, that’s not all,” Barry said, “Kara, your eyes.” Kara looked at herself in the mirror, where her usual green blue eyes were now a bright yellow.

“Oh my God,” she said. She stumbled back into the stall and fell against the toilet. She blinked a few times, and Barry said,

“They’re normal again, they’re normal,” he said.

“What’s happening to me?” Kara said from the ground, the fear evident in her voice. Barry got on her level, took her hands and said,

“I don’t know, but we’re gonna figure it out together. Just calm down, we’re fine.” Kara could hear a heart beating fast. At first she thought it was hers, but it sounded too far away. Kara looked at Barry’s chest. She could feel his heart racing. He was terrified.

“You’re scared,” Kara said, “I can hear your heart, it’s basically pounding.”

“Whoa, you can do that?” Barry asked, and all of a sudden, his heart sounded differently. Almost as if he was excited. She could hear that! It was so cool.

“Yeah, yeah I did,” Kara said, a smile forming on her face. Barry started to laugh, and Kara laughed with him. They laughed until they were both on the ground, unable to get up.

“Oh Kara,” he said after a while, “Everything is going to be okay. We’re going to figure all of this out, but if we’re right, we gotta do it fast.”

“Why?” Kara asked.

“Because the full moon is on Thursday,” Barry said, “And if what I know about lycanthropy is correct, then that’s gonna be the day that you turn.”

The meeting finished, and according to Mother, the Board was very impressed with Lena.

“I think you’ve outdone yourself sweetheart,” she told her.  _ Sweetheart? _ Lena decided not to question a good thing.

“Thank you Mother,” Lena said. She was walking with her Mother towards the elevator when she saw Barry and the girl, “Um, Mother? Can I go talk to that girl over there? She came in with Dr. Danvers, and she may be a useful acquaintance if we’re going to be working with Dr. Danvers.”

“That’s a wonderful idea,” Mother said. Lena was proud of herself. Her Mother had just said two nice things to her in a row. She was on a roll! Lena approached the girl, cleared her throat and said,

“Um, excuse me?” The girl and Barry turned to face her. Both of them seemed a little rattled, and Lena could hear both their hearts pounding. She could tell that they were a mix of nervous with a tad bit of excitement. She wondered what could have caused that.

“Hi,” the girl said, “You were in the meeting with my Mom, right?”

“Uh yeah, I’m Lena Luthor,” she said.

“Kara Danvers,” Kara said, shaking her hand. She had a really strong grip. Kara seemed to realize that before she took her hand away, “So, are you new in town?”

“Yep. I just moved to Midvale, but this is my father’s company, so I’ll probably be in the city most of the time” Lena said.

“We live in Midvale too,” Barry said, “I’m Barry.”

“It’s good to meet you,” she said, “Is Eliza your Mom too?”

“Oh no,” Barry said, “Kara’s just my best friend.” That sounded nice. Lena had never had a best friend before. Or any friend.

“So are you like co CEO here?” Kara asked her.

“Not yet,” Lena said, “I’m only 17, I’m actually going to school at National City Technical High School. Have you guys heard about it?”

“Heck yeah we have, we go there,” Kara said, “In fact, you should come to Room 203 when you get there. It’s our homeroom, we’ll show you around.”

“Wait 203?” Lena asked, “I’m in 203.”

“That’s awesome! We’ll see you there,” Kara said. Eliza came back and called Kara and Barry over, so Kara said, 

“Well we’ve gotta go, but we’ll see you in school tomorrow.”

“Sounds great,” Lena said. She watched the two kids leave with Eliza, who gave Lena a warm smile and a wave as she went into the elevator. Lena wore a big smile as she watched them leave. Had she just made a few friends?

The car ride home was mostly quiet, save Eliza asking Kara if her cough was doing better. It had been a shoddy excuse to get out of the meeting, so Kara was glad she was buying it.

“Yeah, it’s fine,” Kara said.

“Also where are your glasses, you haven’t been wearing them all day.”

“I’ve had contacts in,” she lied, “My glasses broke last night.”

“Well we’ll get you some new ones after school tomorrow,” she said. Kara felt bad, Mom didn’t have to spend money on new glasses if she could see fine. But if this lycanthropy theory wasn’t true, then there was no telling if her vision would come back or not, so better to be safe. Mom dropped Barry off, and he hugged Kara goodbye, saying he was going to do as much research as he could tonight.

“Thanks Barry,” she said, “Are my eyes…”

“They’re normal. They changed in the bathroom because you got angry. My suggestion is stay calm, and don’t pick a fight with your Mom.”

“That’s going to be hard considering we have to talk about last night, and you know me, I like to get defensive,” Kara said.

“Kara, it’s time to go!” Mom called from the car.

“Just cool it for one day,” Barry said, “And if you can call me before school, please do.”

“Yeah sure, bye Barry,” Kara said. Barry went into his house, and Kara went back to her car. Stay calm, she repeated to herself. She sat up front with her Mom instead of in the back, and waved goodbye to Barry from his window. The car pulled out of the driveway, and they were on their way home. Kara honestly couldn’t wait. She hadn’t really slept last night because of her concern about Alex, and the bite throbbing for most of the night. She just wanted to get back in bed. She found herself drifting off after a few moments. When she woke up, they were pulling into the driveway, and the backseat was filled with Mom’s dry cleaning. She must have picked it up.

“Good, you’re awake,” Mom said, “Can you help me bring some of this stuff in?”

“Yeah sure,” she said. She took half the clothes and followed her Mom inside, putting them on the couch after coming in, “I’m going to take a nap.”

“Hey hey, hold it. We still need to talk,” Eliza said, pointing to the couch. Kara held in a sigh before going to sit down, “Talk to me. What happened last night?”

“Barry and I were gonna hang, I went off on my own, and I lost track of time,” Kara said. She decided she wouldn’t tell her Mom she’d been arrested if she didn’t already know.

“You lost track of time? Kara, you didn’t come home until almost three in the morning. You have a curfew of midnight, which I always thought was pretty generous. So tell me. How did you manage to lose three hours of time, three hours where you were alone by yourself in the city, with both your best friend and your Mother worrying about you?”

“Look Mom, I never meant to worry you, but my phone was broken, and there was no way to check the time, and I wanted to enjoy the weather-”

“It was pouring and thundering last night. You hate thunderstorms.”  _ Crap, she wasn’t wrong _ . Kara decided to go down the apology route.

“I am so sorry, Mom. Believe me, I am. I was selfish, I wasn’t considering your feelings, and I made several mistakes. I am beyond sorry, and I will never do it again.”

“Oh I know you will. And I’m going to make sure of it. After school you’re coming to the lab with me to help me while I work on my project until dinner every day.”

“But Mom what about homework? And field hockey!” Kara said.  _ And me potentially being a person who could turn into a wolf? _ She could feel her face getting hot. She shut her eyes.  _ Calm, calm, calm,  _ she repeated to herself. She heard her heart rate slow, and she opened her eyes. Her Mom didn’t look freaked, so she knew her eyes had to be normal.

“You can do your homework in the lab. And as for field hockey, most of your practices are in the morning anyway, and the ones in the afternoon can be made up for on weekends.”

“Weekends? That’s so not fair!” Kara complained.

“No baby, what’s so not fair is me worrying about you for  _ hours! _ Kara, you’re in the city, you could have gone anywhere to get a phone! A restaurant, a grocery store, or even the police!” Kara looked at her feet. The police had been an option, she just hadn’t used it. Probably for the better anyway, she’d definitely be in a lot more trouble if her Mom knew about that, “But you didn’t. And that is inexcusable.” She was right, and Kara had no case.

“You’re right, I’m sorry,” she said, “And I’m sorry for arguing with you this morning. I wasn’t feeling my best and I took it out on you.” Her Mom looked surprised. Kara knew it was because she was never this apologetic. But right now the fear of her eyes turning yellow was overcoming her pride.

“Oh. Thank you sweetie,” Mom said, “I really am glad to hear that.” She moved to sit next to Kara and said, “I know It’s been hard for us sometimes, but I want us to be able to talk like this. You know you can always talk to me about how you’re feeling, okay?”

“I do,” Kara said, “I love you, Mom.”

“I love you too, baby,” she said, “Now get upstairs, you look exhausted and I need to start the groundwork for my project.”

“Okay,” Kara said.

“And I’ll bring you some medicine for the cough, I don’t want that to get worse,” Mom said. Kara just nodded. She still felt bad about that, “And your curfew is at 10 until further notice.”  _ Hopefully the wolf transformation happened before that. _

“Fine Mom,” she said, “Can I call Barry on your phone to tell him I’m feeling alright?”

“Sure honey,” Mom said, “We can talk about getting your phone replaced, and I’m taking you in a few hours to get some new glasses, okay?”

“Sounds good.” Kara said. She took her Mom’s phone from the counter and went to her room to call Barry. She was proud of herself. She’d remained calm. Maybe this wouldn’t be too bad after all. Barry picked up on the second ring.

“Hello?” he asked.

“Hey Barry, it’s me,” Kara said, “I’ll probably be on my Mom’s phone for the foreseeable future, but I just finished talking with her, and I was fine. I didn’t get angry once.”

“Hey, look at you,” he said, “Look I gotta go help make lunch, but I’ll see you tomorrow. I promise you, so much research will be done by then.”

“Sounds good. See ya Barry.”

“Bye bye,” he said, hanging up. Kara was glad to have him on her side, and was excited to see him in the morning, as well as the new girl she’d met after the meeting. She had a good feeling about her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will see Lena's first day of school :)


	3. First Day Fun

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lena starts school, and Kara learns more about her new abilities.

Lena entered her new school feeling a rush of nervousness. She had no idea where to find Room 203, and the hallway was packed. Her super hearing was going ballistic. She had it conditioned to the bell and the halls at her boarding school, but that school had had maybe 300 kids at max. This school probably had ten times that. It was exhausting for her ears. Lena decided to find 203 by looking at signs. She was next to 108 now, so maybe if she went up a floor she’d find 203. She searched for a sign that said stairs. She found one at the end of the hall and was glad the stair room wasn’t as full as the hall. She went to the second floor and was glad to see 203 as the first one on the left. She opened the door and went in. She saw Kara and Barry at the back, and they waved her over.

“Hey, you found us!” Kara said with a smile.

“Yeah. This school, it’s huge,” Lena said, sitting down in the seat next to Kara. 

“Oh yeah, it’s the biggest building on the block,” Barry said, “I gotta run to the bathroom before the bell, I’ll be right back.” He left the room, and Lena was alone with Kara. She suddenly felt a lot more nervous than she had when she’d come in.

“So, what’s been your favorite part about Midvale?” Kara asked.

“Um, that diner. Down by the drive in. Really good blueberry pancakes,” she said. Lena had gone today before school and had the pancakes as a starter for breakfast and then a rabbit for desert. Lena didn’t usually drink animal blood but if there was no way for her to get a person, animals had to do. She reminded herself to stop by the hospital and get access to the blood bank. Getting blood out of a bag was way easier than feeding off of anybody.

“Oh I love that diner! They’ve got the best potstickers,” Kara said.

“I’ll have to try those out one day,” Lena said. Her ears were then distracted by a beeping sound coming from Kara’s arm, “Do you hear that?”

“Hear what?” Kara asked.

“The beeping,” Lena said. She looked down and saw Kara wearing a necklace with a beeping red light, “What is that?”

“Oh, it’s a heart rate monitor,” Kara said, “For field hockey, I play field hockey. I had a practice this morning and it helped.”  _ Why did a teenager need a heart rate monitor? _ Lena decided not to ask. She just nodded and said,

“Cool.” The two girls were silent for a bit until Kara said,

“That was cool of you and your Mom to approve my Mom’s project. I think she’s really excited. Are you gonna be there while she works?”

“Yeah, I should be there.” Mother was too busy drinking for all Lena knew, so she was leaving Lena in charge of this project.

“Cool, me too. Mom wants me to come with her after school to um, learn more about the scientific field.” Lena knew Kara was hiding something from her. She could hear her heartbeat beating fast. She wondered if the monitor was picking that up. But she also knew it wasn’t her place to ask, it wasn’t like they were friends or anything, “So what class do you have first?”

“Physics,” Lena said, “Do you know where this room is?” She showed Kara her schedule.

“Oh yeah, it’s right down the hall actually, I’ll walk you.” Kara took a deeper look at her schedule, “Nice! AP Physics, Calc, Econ,  _ and _ English! You’re a genius!” Lena blushed, and hoped Kara didn’t notice.

“It’s nothing, I had a lot of private tutors growing up,” she admitted. She and Lex were basically homeschooled until Lena left for boarding school when she was twelve, and Lex went to college. That had been one of the best years of her life because for once, she’d been free from her family, “Are you in any of these classes?”

“Oh no, but I actually tested out of physics and calculus last year, and Econ just isn’t my thing so I couldn't handle AP. I probably could have done AP English, but Barry and I have fun in regular because the teacher lets us sleep. It gets me rested for field hockey.” Lena laughed. She couldn’t imagine taking a class that was easy just for fun. Mother would have her head for doing that. But Kara testing out of physics and calculus was pretty impressive. While Lena believed she was capable of doing the same, it was a lot of work, and sometimes she liked to take things a little slow. She could have that balance. “I know, I know. That’s lazy of us, right?”

“No, I think it’s great,” Lena said, “We all push ourselves too hard. Why not take a break?”

“Exactly! My Mom got so mad at me, and was all like, ‘Kara, you should be applying yourself to the full extent of your abilities just like Alex did.’ Like no Mom, let me make my own choices.”

“Who is Alex?” Lena asked.

“Oh, my older sister. She’s at Stanford,” Kara said.  _ Stanford? That was impressive. _ No wonder Kara’s Mom put that kind of pressure on her. Lex had been at Colombia, but Mother didn’t care enough for Lena to push her to get to where he was. Not that college was in Lena’s future, considering she’d be running the company as soon as she was done with high school, now that the Board was so impressed with her. Lena didn’t mind, but college did sound fun, “She’s gonna be really successful, I know it. A lot more than I’ll ever be.”

“Don’t say that,” Lena said, “You’ll find something, we all do.” Lena was lucky with the company. Growing up, when the company was going to go to Lex, Lena had agonized over what she’d wanted to do with her life, but now with the company being given to her, she no longer had to worry about stuff like that. Not that she’d been really worrying since she’d been turned into a vampire nearly two years ago, but it was good to feel human sometimes.

“I hope so,” Kara murmured, more to herself than to Lena, but Lena heard. She heard everything from the beeping of Kara’s heart rate monitor to the pencil the girl in the front row was writing with. It was a curse sometimes, Lena almost never got any peace. But now she was worried about Kara. She could hear the monitor beeping faster along with Kara’s heart.  _ What was she so concerned about? _ Lena wished she could help her, but she barely knew her. Barry returned soon, and Lena hoped Kara’s friend would be able to bring her out of what was getting her so down, but the two of them barely talked. Kara had turned to writing something in her notebook, and Barry pulled his phone out and started to play a game. The three of them sat in silence for the rest of homeroom, save when Lena had to introduce herself as the newest member of the school, not that anyone paid much attention, besides Kara and Barry giving her smiles when she had to go in front of the class. She was sitting again, and she could feel Kara’s heartbeat getting faster. Why wasn’t it showing physically? It was practically racing. The bell rang, and Lena almost had to cover her ears. She was busy focusing on her own pain that she didn’t even notice Kara struggling behind her, clamping her ears.

“Barry,” she whispered to her friends, “It hurts. Bad!”

“Okay okay, it’s okay,” he said, grabbing her head, “It’s okay, the bell is gone.” Kara removed her hands and said,

“What am I gonna do for every other period?”

“When we’re babies, our ears get conditioned to sounds. I think it’s the same for this. If you hear something long enough, your brain won’t be affected by it.”

“So I just have to deal with it?”

“Pretty much,” he said. Kara could hear her heart monitor going insane as her heart rate rose with the pain from the bell. It was probably driving Barry crazy. He’d said he hadn’t been able to hear it when he’d given it to her, but if Lena had heard it, that meant people with normal hearing could. Lena turned to the two of them and said,

“Hey Kara, are you still walking me to physics?”

“Heck yeah,” she said, “Let’s go.” She slung her backpack over her shoulder and told Barry she’d meet him in English. The hallway wasn’t that fun. The slamming of the locker doors mixed with the sounds of the crowds of students was making her panicked.

“Kara are you alright,” Lena asked. Kara was glad she was still able to hear her. She nodded and said, “Yeah, I just didn’t sleep that well last night.” She took Lena to the physics classroom and said, “Right in here. What do you have next?”

“Calculus.”

“That’s good. It’ll be right down the hall, over there,” Kara said. She pointed to the classroom, hoping Lena could see it, “And if you don’t see me afterwards, there’s a directory by the elevator.”

“Thanks Kara,” she said.

“Of course. Come eat lunch with me and Barry if you can, we’ll be sitting by the apple tree in the courtyard.” Lena looked a little conflicted, so Kara was worried she’d overstepped, “Unless you don’t want to, I don’t wanna force you.”

“No it’s not that, it’s just…” Lena trailed off and said, “Lunch sounds great, so you there!”

“Coolio,” Kara said as Lena walked away into the classroom. She tried not to kick herself in front of Lena for saying that.  _ Coolio? Really? _ The sound of a loud locker slam was enough to make Kara jump and forget about her awkwardness. She thought about what Barry said. She just had to condition her ears. That couldn’t be too hard, right? The sound of someone’s shoes squeaking on the floor proved otherwise. It felt like nails on a chalkboard.  _ Stupid wolf, _ she thought to herself. If that animal hadn’t bitten her, she wouldn’t have to deal with this. She hunched her shoulders in an attempt to cover her ears on the entire way to French. She saw Barry in the back and went to sit with him.

“Did Lena get to class okay?”

“Yeah,” she said, “I think she’ll be good until lunch. I said she could sit with us.”

“Cool cool. How are your ears? And how’s the heart monitor doing?”

“It’s fine. My ears not so much, but it’ll be okay. I’ll make it through. But with the heart monitor, I thought you said you couldn’t hear the beeping. I don’t wanna bother anyone with it.”

“And you won’t be. I can’t hear it,” he said.

“Are you sure? Because Lena said she could.”

“Kara I swear, I can’t. Is it beeping?”  _ Yeah, and fast. _ The sound was a little bothersome, but not too bad. But Barry and the rest of the class seemed fine. Maybe Lena just had really good hearing, or she could hear something else.

“I guess it was nothing then,” she said. She could feel the beeping slowing down. Her heart rate was probably going down. She was glad that she had the monitor. It had been her idea to have one after she nearly flipped out on her coach during field hockey. She’d asked Barry to pick it up on the way to school. They’d then put it on during homeroom. When it beeped fast, it was over 150, when it was steady, it was between 60-100, and if it was barely there, it was below 60, but that never happened. And it worked well during school, save for when the bell rang and it went off like crazy, but Kara was nervous for field hockey. They’d done a simple running drill, and Kara had gone so fast that she’d basically flown off the field, and when the coach had come to check on her, she’d gotten angry. She was benched from the first game, but maybe that was for the best. She hated this. Everything had been fine on Friday, but now she had this bite that meant she could turn into a wolf, she had no control over what it was doing to her, and it was scaring her. She heard the beeping in her monitor grow more rapid. She took a breath to calm herself. She could do this. She had her lunch with Lena and Barry, and she was excited for that. Having a new friend was the only thing keeping her mind off Thursday’s full moon, and it allowed her to have some fun. And she could really use that.

Lunch with Kara and Barry came around, and Lena was excited. She’d been looking forward to it all day. She saw the two of them sitting at a picnic table by the apple tree, and went to sit with them. They both said hi, and after a moment, Kara asked,

“So Lena, how have classes been so far? You like it here?”

“I do, actually,” Lena said, “The curriculum is very challenging and I feel like I’m learning a lot. I think this place was a good fit.”

“What was your old school like?” Barry asked, “I only ask because you’re in so many top classes. Only the real geniuses can get into those.”

“Oh, it was a boarding school,” Lena said, “St. Helena’s. It was pretty prestigious. I went there for years, and it was nice. But I had to move here with my Mother because of the company.”

“Cool,” Barry said, and Lena was glad he didn’t prod further. She didn’t feel like explaining what happened to her brother to them. Especially because she didn’t even know. She took a bite of the salad she’d picked out for lunch. It wasn’t bad, but she needed blood to fill up. She knew she had to go find a hospital today in order to get blood bags, otherwise she wouldn’t make it much longer.

“We could go together, if that sounds fun,” Kara was saying. Lena snapped out of thinking about blood and realized Kara was asking her a question.

“Oh sorry, I spaced for a second. What were you asking?” Lena asked.

“Just asking if you wanted to get ice cream with us this weekend,” Kara said, “There’s this place in town. Best hot fudge sundaes in the state.”

“Sounds fun, I’m in,” Lena said. She couldn’t even remember the last time she’d had ice cream. They didn’t have it at her old school, and Mother hadn’t liked it in the house. When she’d been five, Lex had snuck her some at a party. Maybe that was the last time. Barry left to go get some more food, while Kara smiled and said,

“Awesome! I’ll text you and we can-wait, I don’t have your number. Or a phone, long story. But Barry can text you. What’s your number?”

“I actually don’t have a phone either,” Lena admitted. Her boarding school hadn’t allowed personal cell phones, and all the people she really knew had lived with her, so she’d never needed one.

“Oh, do you have a computer?” Kara asked. Lena nodded, “I’ll email you then. Here.” She pulled out a notebook and opened to an empty page, “Give me your email. I’ll message you after school.” Lena wrote her email down and gave it back to her. Kara read it and asked, “What does 0467 mean? The numbers at the end?” Lena felt a pang as Kara mentioned those numbers, which Kara noticed because she said, “I’m sorry. Did I say something wrong?”   


“No um, it’s just that...those numbers mean April 1967. That was when my Mother was born,” Lena said. She didn’t usually keep going with this story, but she could trust Kara, “My birth mother. I was adopted when I was four. Right after she died.”

“Oh,” Kara said, just as a tear started to roll down Lena’s cheek, “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay Kara, really,” Lena said, “I miss her of course, but I’m fine.” Kara nodded,

“So...the woman from the meeting?”

“Adoptive mother,” Lena said, “She’s uh, she’s an experience. She isn’t the nicest woman on the planet, but I can’t say she hasn’t provided me with whatever I’ve needed, so that’s what counts, right?” Kara didn’t look too convinced, but she just said,

“Yeah, I guess. My Mom and I fight sometimes, I can be a handful sometimes, but at the end of the day, she’s like my best friend. Well, besides my sister. And Barry. They’re all kind of like my best friends I guess.”

“That’s nice,” Lena said. Kara sounded like she had a good life, but Lena did have one question, “Can I ask you something?”

“Anything,” Kara said.

“You’ve mentioned your Mom and your sister, but never your Dad,” Lena said. She could see Kara’s face fall after that.  _ Crap _ . She probably shouldn’t have asked. But she  _ had _ said anything.

“My Dad passed away when I was young,” Kara admitted, “I’m not sure what happened to him, but one day he just went out to get groceries. Then they found his body on the side of the road. I’d been only five at the time, my sister was seven. Mom was quiet about it though, I don’t even think he had a funeral. But it was kind of a blessing, in a weird way. The CSI assigned to the case was Barry’s Dad. That was how we met. He’s been one of my best friends ever since. And my Mom...she’s been okay. She was sad a lot, but now, with her work, she’s had a lot to focus on. She’s really excited to start working for your company.” Lena smiled and said,

“I went through all of her research last night, she’s a genius.” Lena had gone through every single paper at around midnight while at the diner. Tessa had made pancakes, and while watching Lena comb through the packets of research, remarked,

“That high school of yours sure makes you work hard.”

“Oh no, this isn’t for school. I haven’t even started yet,” Lena had said, “It’s a research project that my family’s company is funding.”

“Family company, fancy. What’s the research about, and why do they have you reading it?”

“I’m in charge of investments. The woman gave me her research to read, and she starts work tomorrow so I’d like to be informed on it. The project is tech that basically mutates the blood vessels in the body to stop intense blood flow when someone is injured.”

“Intense, I like it.”

“Yeah me too.” Lena had finished her food, and Tessa had told her to let her know if the project worked. Lena had been surprised Tessa had been interested. She thought that Tessa had only been talking to her in the first place because Lena had been the only one in the room.

“Thanks,” Kara said.

“I guess we’ll both get to see everything first hand after school,” Lena told her.

“Indeed, it should be fun,” Kara said, and Lena could hear her heart rate monitor beep a little faster.  _ Was she scared? _ Lena listened in on Kara’s heart, and while it was beeping faster, it wasn’t out of fear. It was excitement. Barry came back soon after with a bowl of mac and cheese.

“Damn that line was long,” he said, “What did I miss?”

“Nothing,” Kara said, “You wanna come with me and Lena to look at my Mom’s research after school? It could be fun.”

“I can’t, I’ve got a history paper due tomorrow that I haven’t started. But you should tell me how it goes, I know she’s been excited to get started.”

“Yeah, I will,” Kara said. She looked a little sad that Barry wasn’t coming, and Lena felt awkward. Kara probably didn’t want to be alone with her for so long. She guessed that was fine. It wasn’t like they were close friends or anything. However, Lena’s anxiety went away when a big smile spread on Kara’s face and she told Barry, “Lena and I will have all the fun without you, then.”

“Hey! That hurts,” Barry said, but it was good natured, and the two of them soon began to laugh. Lena joined in, and it was great. She felt good. Maybe this wouldn’t be too bad after all. Lunch ended, and as the three of them were packing up their food to throw away, Kara told Barry to go ahead, and that the two of them would catch up. When he was gone, Lena asked,

“Is something wrong?”

“No, nothing at all,” Kara said, “Just that...if you ever want to talk about your Mom with anybody, I’m here to listen.” Lena could almost hear her heart swell up. No one had ever been like that with her, not even her friends from her old school.

“Thank you Kara,” Lena said, hoping she didn’t sound too choked up. Kara gave her a big smile and said,

“Come on, I’ll walk you to your next class.” Lena smiled and fell into step with Kara, allowing a warm feeling to come over her. She’d done it, she’d made a friend.

Kara was having so much fun after school with her Mom, that she’d honestly forgotten it was supposed to be a punishment. But Mom didn’t even mind since Kara had actually been taking the time to learn about the project, though that was mostly due to Lena. If Kara had learned anything about Lena over the past few days, it was that she  _ loved _ science. She was learning more about her Mom’s research from Lena than she was from her Mom herself. But the fun had to end. Wednesday night, Kara couldn’t sleep. It was like the moon was physically keeping her awake. It glowed through her window, and she was almost infatuated by it. She laid in bed that night, and watched it. It was nearly full. It would crest tomorrow night, and Barry was certain that Kara would turn into a wolf when it did. A huge part of Kara was hoping that when the moon crested, nothing would happen. But she knew that wasn’t the case. She could still see fine without her glasses, and her eyes still glowed yellow during field hockey when somebody pushed her a little too hard. The heart rate monitor on her arm beeped like crazy any time she felt even an ounce of panic. The only thing that kept her mind off of it was Lena. With her smile and her jokes about ions or elements that somehow managed to make Kara laugh. But at the end of the day, once she was alone, it was all she could think about.

_ What will it be like?  _ she wondered.  _ Will it hurt? Will it kill me? _ Kara wasn’t sure what to think about it. Transforming into a completely different creature didn’t sound fun, especially when she was alone with it. Barry was there for her, and he was nice about it, but he didn’t understand. Nobody could understand. Except maybe that wolf who bit her. But Kara didn’t see them coming around anytime soon, not that she wanted them too. She still remembered looking into the eyes of that wolf. They’d been cold, red, and monstrous. Was that what was gonna happen to her? Was she a monster? She figured she wouldn’t know until tomorrow night. Kara rolled over so she didn’t have to look at the moon anymore. It was almost making her sick. Kara contemplated calling Alex. She was always having late nights in college, she was sure she’d be awake. But Alex hadn’t been taking her calls. She was still mad at her. It made Kara sad. She missed her. Kara closed her eyes in an attempt to sleep so she could forget about Alex and the transformation, but all she could see were those wolf eyes. Her eyes sprung open, and she could see the yellow reflected in her alarm clock. Dammit.

“Stupd eyes,” she grumbled to herself. She blinked a few times to make them go away, then she got out of bed. Sleep just wasn’t happening. Kara grabbed her field hockey stick from her closet and slid into some sneakers. Maybe making some shots would get her tired enough to sleep. Mom would let her make shots using the garage door as the goal since it was too strong for Kara to break. She hoped the balls wouldn’t wake Mom up, though. It was nearing midnight. She guessed she’d know if she got a complaint. Kara started slow, making average shots that thumped against the garage door. She picked it up. She slammed the balls against the garage door. She was getting better at this. She was able to catch all the balls that kept bouncing back. She went faster and faster, and she could see the yellow glow of her eyes. Her heart was racing, the monitor beeping faster and faster. But she couldn’t stop. She was running on pure adrenaline, and she was loving it. She curled her hands around the stick, and hit the ball coming towards her as hard as she could. It went straight through the garage door, luckily missing the car.

“Shit!” Kara exclaimed. She ran to the garage and examined the hole. It wasn’t too big, but there was no way Mom wouldn’t notice, “Dammit!” Kara angrily hit the door, and she felt her hand almost stick to it. Weird. Kara examined her hand on the door, and saw that it was almost digging into it. Kara moved it down, and almost screamed as she saw the claw mark it left behind.

“Holy shit,” she murmured. She removed her hand from the door and saw her fingers which had now turned into claws. She looked at her other hand, which looked the same. The claws looked familiar. She remembered seeing them on the creature that had attacked her. They looked just like it, and by this time tomorrow, Kara would be it. Kara’s fear over what she was about to become was slowly morphing into anger. She hadn’t asked for this, she didn’t want it! In a fit of anger, she kicked the garage, yelling out at the pain it still caused her. Pain that only lasted for a second, but pain all the same. Her anger got worse, and she slashed at the garage again, her claws going over it like nails on a chalkboard.

“Shit!” she screamed this time. She hated this! She didn’t want to be a wolf, she just wanted to be normal! Why was this happening to her? Kara could feel a pain again, this time coming from her mouth. Her breaths soon came out labored as the pain overcame her, and when it was gone, her mouth felt heavy. Kara quickly ran back inside her house and into the nearest bathroom. She nearly screamed at her reflection. Her eyes had returned to their yellow color, and her canine teeth had grown into what looked like fangs. Her ears had changed to a more pointed shape, and there was hair growing on her face. She wanted to scream, but she was worried Mom would hear. And Mom could not see her like this. Kara could feel her heartbeat quickening, and she knew she had to slow it down. If it made her eyes turn back to their normal color, it would fix this. She closed her eyes and took a breath. She had to think about good things, that calmed her down. 

She tried her usual memories. The first time she’d had ice cream, when she and Barry had won first place in their tap dance competition. But that wasn’t working, she could still feel the teeth. Kara kept breathing, and attempted to slow it but she couldn’t. She kept thinking, but even thinking was starting to stress her out. She opened her eyes again, and curled her fingers around the sink. Nothing was working. This was bad, this was so bad. As her eyes went to her hands, she saw something. It was a Luthor Corp bracelet. Lena had given it to her today. It gave her free access to the labs over there anytime Kara wanted to come in.  _ Lena _ . Kara could smile when she thought about her. She’d probably have several theories over Kara’s condition, and would want to help. It wasn’t like Kara was going to tell her, but that comfort was nice. Kara saw Lena’s smile, and could hear her gentle voice. She’d probably tell Kara that everything was going to be okay. As Kara thought about Lena, she noticed the beeping on her monitor slow. Kara opened her eyes and saw them return to their blue green hue, and when she opened her mouth, she saw her teeth go back to normal, and the hair vanished from her face. It wasn’t long until the claws left too. She took a deep breath. It was okay. She was okay.

Across town, Lillian Luthor was sitting at the dining room table, looking through papers from the company. She paid no attention to Lena as she walked in. Lena cleared her throat to get Mother’s attention, but nothing. She decided to just start talking.

“Mother?” she asked. Lillian looked up from the papers, and with the most annoyed expression on her face, asked,

“What is it that you want?” Lena wrung her hands together and said,

“I’d like a phone.” Lillian frowned, “Like, a cell phone.”

“I know what a phone is, Lena,” she said, “Why do you want one? You’ve never needed one.”  _ So I can talk to my new friend Kara, who treats me with more respect than you do _ . Lena was smart enough not to say that out loud, and instead said,

“For the company. In case there are calls I need to take. You said that the Board was impressed with me, and having a phone will make it easier to keep in contact with them.” She nodded,

“Fine. I suppose that makes sense. Pick one out tomorrow, it’s late.”

“Thank you, Mother,” Lena said, trying to hide the big grin that was about to spread over her face. She couldn’t believe her Mother had gone for that. She was nearly out of the dining room when she heard Mother say, “And Lena?” Lena turned around.

“Yes Mother?”

“No more going out late at night. There was an animal attack the night we moved into town. A man had his neck ripped open. We can’t have anything happen to you, we won’t have a successor.” Lena’s skin went cold at the mention of the man. She could still taste his blood sometimes. 

“I don’t go out late at night,” she said. It was a lie, but it was the best she could come up with at the moment. Mother shook her head and said,

“Lena you’re many things, a liar isn’t one of them. Listen to me when I say it isn’t safe. That man was practically ripped apart when they found the body.”

“Body?” Lena asked. That couldn’t be right. She hadn’t fed off enough of him to kill him, just enough for him to regret his actions. Plus, she’d seen him walk away.

“Yes,” Lillian said, “They found him lying on the side of Baker Street. He had scratch marks all over his body, and some of his organs had been ripped out.”  _ Organs? _ Lena hadn’t done that. Plus, when she’d see that man, they’d been near the diner. The diner was on Raven Street. 

“That’s, that’s awful,” Lena said.

“Yes,” Lillian said, “So no late nights. I need you here at all times when you’re not with the company. I’ve hired extra security. They’ll be here tomorrow.” Security sounded extreme, but Lena figured the company would fail without their greatest asset, which was her. Though Lena wished her Mother was doing this because she cared about her, not just the company.

“If I have plans on Saturday night, would I be able to go?” Lillian frowned at her,

“Plans with who?”

“Kara, she’s Dr. Danvers’s daughter. She’s my friend,” she added at the end. 

“I suppose. If you take one of the guards with you, of course.”

“Mother, don’t you think that’s a bit much?”

“Absolutely not. No guards, you don’t go. That’s that,” she said before returning to her files. Lena decided to find a compromise.

“What if Kara came here? The guards would be outside. We’d be fine,” Lena said. Lillian looked up from her files and said,

“Very well. If that’s what you would like to do.” Lena nodded and said,

“Goodnight Mother.” She got no response, so she went back upstairs. While she was elated about getting to spend time with Kara over the weekend, she was also worried about what Mother had told her concerning the man she’d fed on. She hadn’t killed him. She’d seen him walk. Lena went into her room and opened her computer. She searched up Midvale news and saw the report Mother had been talking about. It said exactly what she’d said. Lena wished the article had pictures, but she could imagine they’d been too gory. They did have a before picture of the man, though, and it was indeed the man Lena had fed on. And now he was dead, but Lena hadn’t been the one to kill him. But the wounds described...they were saying animal attack, but that couldn’t have been the case. No wild animal could have been that careful. The wounds were described as making an X on the victim’s chest. In usual animal attacks, they were a lot more messy. Plus there were bite marks on the wrists. That was the best place to feed that wasn’t the neck. This meant one thing. There was another vampire in town, and Lena had to figure out who it was, or more people would get hurt. Including her new friend Kara, who had no idea of the world she’d been inviting in when she said hi to her that day at Luthor Corp.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will deal with Kara's first transformation. Thanks to everyone who has been reading!


	4. The Beast

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara experiences her first transformation

Kara entered school the next morning clutching her Luthor Corp bracelet. It was the only way keeping her heartbeat steady. The moon was going to crest tonight, and everything felt heightened, both the good and the bad. While her anxiety was heightened, so was the pleasure she felt when she saw Lena at her locker. She walked over to her and said,

“Hey. How’s it going?”

“Going great,” Lena said, “Were you able to finish your chemistry problems?” Lena had spent almost all of yesterday afternoon at the lab helping Kara with calorimetry. 

“Yeah, I did,” she said, “Thanks for the help, I wasn’t getting it at all.”

“Of course,” Lena said, “Anything for a friend.” That made Kara smile, and it helped with her heart rate. As she walked with Lena, the girl asked,

“Hey about Saturday, do you think that instead of getting ice cream, we could just meet at my place? I think that would be easier for me.” Kara didn’t know why she was cancelling, but she was glad that she still wanted to hang out, so she said,

“Sure. But do expect me to bring that hot fudge sundae for you to try.”

“Perfect,” Lena said. The two of them got to homeroom, and while Lena left to ask the teacher a question, Kara went to Barry, who was sitting near the back, playing a videogame.

“Hey,” she told him, “I haven’t heard from you in a bit, where’ve you been?”

“Swamped,” he said, “I had to write a ten page paper for English last night.”

“You mean the paper that was assigned two weeks ago?” Kara asked.

“Hey, I’m a busy man,” he said. Kara rolled her eyes as she sat down with him, “But enough about me. How are you feeling about tonight?”

“Terrified,” Kara said, lowering her voice, “Last night I was practicing my shooting, and I shot the ball right through the garage door.”

“Holy crap! What did Eliza say?”

“I don’t know, I left before she woke up so I wouldn’t have to face her. But that wasn’t all I did. I got angry about the garage, and angry about turning into a wolf, and I kind of lost it. Literal claws came out of my hand, and I slashed the door. And my teeth, they turned into wolf teeth. They looked just like the teeth of the thing that bit me! This is happening, I’m going to turn into a wolf.” Barry placed a hand on her shoulder and said,

“Kara, it’s going to be okay. I have everything planned for tonight. My Mom and Dad are going to be gone until Monday for a conference, so I have the house to myself. You’ll come over, we’ll go to the basement, you’ll transform, and then in the morning, it’ll be over.”

“I don’t think it’s going to be that easy,” Kara said, “Last night I could barely control myself, who knows what I’ll be like during the actual full moon?”

“I might have some ideas for that,” Barry said after a moment, “Give me the day, I’ll make sure this goes okay. Just get permission to sleep over tonight, say we’re working on a project.”

“Okay,” Kara said, “Can I have your phone to call my Mom?” Mom had ordered a new one for Kara, but it wouldn’t be there for two more weeks. Barry nodded and gave Kara the phone. Kara dialed the number and waited for her Mom to pick up.

“Barry? Why are you calling, honey? Is something wrong?”

“Mom it’s me,” Kara said, “Barry and I have to build a diorama for history and it’s due in the morning. Can I spend the night at his house?”

“I mean I guess, if it’s for school and his parents are home.”

“Oh yeah totally,” Kara lied, hoping her Mom wouldn’t notice.

“Be careful out there, honey,” she said, “I don’t know if you heard, but there’s a wild animal loose in the town. And whatever it is, it wrecked our garage last night.”

“It did?” Kara asked.

“Yes. I’m going to drive you to Barry’s tonight, and pick you up in the morning. It isn’t safe for you out there by yourself, okay?”

“Yeah sure,” Kara said, “I gotta go, but I’ll see you after school.”

“Okay. Have a good day at school honey. I love you.”

“Love you too,” Kara said. She hung up the phone and gave it back to Barry, “We’re good for tonight. But Barry, my Mom said that there’s apparently a wild animal loose in town. She thinks that animal is what ruined our garage.”

“Do you think it’s the wolf that bit you?”

“I mean who else could it be? I mean, unless there’s another wolf out there, but I don’t even want to think about that,” Kara said. Barry typed something into his phone.

“Oh my God,” he said, “Check this. A man was murdered by this animal on Saturday night, but his body was just discovered yesterday.”

“Holy crap,” Kara said, scrolling through the article.

“What’s everybody looking at?” Lena asked as she returned from the front.

“A guy got murdered last night, did you see?” Barry asked. Kara turned to Lena, and saw a flash of fear in her eyes as she looked at the article.

“Um, yeah. I think I saw something about that on the TV,” she said. Kara frowned. Lena had sounded so...un Lena like when she’d said that. She’d almost been stuttering. Anytime Lena talked she was always so composed. Kara liked that about her.

“Crazy. You’d expect news like that coming from the city, but not Midvale,” Barry said. Kara nodded and said,

“Yeah, you’d think.” The three of them sat in an awkward silence after that until the bell rang.

“I’ll see you two at lunch, gotta run,” Barry said.

“We have English together!” Kara called after him, but he was gone, “Strange boy.”

“He’s a riot,” Lena said,

“He really is,” Kara said, “Oh he called me last night to say he can’t make it on Saturday. He procrastinated on his homework again and has to work.”

“Oh, so it’ll just be you and me?” Lena asked. 

“Yep,” Kara said.  _ Oh no, did Lena not want that?  _ “But um, if you wanna hang with both of us, we can just reschedule-”

“No no, it’s fine. I want to hang out with you,” Lena said.

“Awesome,” Kara said, “I’ll see you there, then.”

Lena noticed a shift in Kara as the day went on. She was no longer as bubbly as she’d been during homeroom, or when she’d walked Lena to class afterward. She was quiet, and closed off. When Lena had gone to tell her about her new phone, she’d kind of ignored her.

“I just need some time by myself,” she’d said before walking away to do some work.

“Alright then,” Lena said to herself. She went to her computer to do her research into the new vampire in town when she noticed Eliza walk over to Kara. As she watched, she realized that the two women were not getting along well with each other. Lena knew she shouldn’t have, but she was curious. She moved her hair behind her ear and listened in.

“Kara, we’ve been doing so well for the past few days. Where is this attitude coming from?” Eliza was asking.

“I literally don’t know what you’re talking about,” Kara said. There was a lot of annoyance in her voice. Lena was worried.  _ Was something wrong? _

“Hey, don’t be like that,” Eliza said, “Tell me what’s going on, you were fine this morning.”

“I’m just not having the best day, Mom. Can we leave it at that?”

“No we can’t, your mood just went from calm to completely off the rails in a matter of seconds. What’s going on, sweetie. Let me help you.” Lena studied Kara’s expression. For a second, it almost seemed like she was about to tell her Mother what was wrong. She could see the tells. The lip quiver, the softened expression. However, Kara did no such thing.

“Nothing is wrong, I just uh, I need to work on this before I go to Barry’s house. If it’s not done we’ll be really behind.” Lena watched Kara open a binder and read through it, obviously faking about doing homework, but apparently not too obvious since Eliza bought it and walked away. Lena quickly turned back to her computer as Eliza came close to her. She knew she was too far away for Eliza to know she’d been eavesdropping, but she still didn’t want it to look like she had been. Lena tried to return to her research, but her thoughts never strayed from Kara. She turned and saw the girl hunched over her binder, with her head in her hands. She looked distressed. Lena wondered if she should go over there and ask, but when she’d talked to Kara earlier, she hadn’t been in the best mood, and Lena didn’t wanna make things worse. But her gaze couldn’t leave her new friend. She watched Kara run a hand through her hair, then watched as her hand then moved to the Luthor Corp bracelet on her arm. Lena had gifted her that bracelet on Monday. Kara’s hand never left it, and after taking a few breaths, Kara lifted her head. She looked better. There were still remnants of tears in her eyes, but the distress was gone. Kara’s gaze shifted to Lena, and Lena was about to turn away until she saw Kara give her a warm smile. Lena watched the girl straighten her glasses before getting up. When Lena registered that Kara was walking over to talk to her, she closed her computer. She couldn’t have anyone seeing what she was up to, they could get suspicious.

“Kara, hey,” Lena said to her friend as she walked up to her.

“Hey,” Kara said, “I’m sorry about how I acted towards you earlier. I was having a bad day, and I shouldn’t have taken it out on you.”

“Kara it’s fine. Don’t sweat it, we all have bad days.” Lena was just relieved that Kara wasn’t mad at her. She’d never been that good at making friends. She didn’t want to lose one of the only ones she ever had. Kara smiled at her and said,

“I’m really stoked you got a phone. When my new one comes, we can exchange numbers. It’ll be fun.” Lena nodded and said,

“Yeah, totally. So, do you want to come downstairs with me? I can show you how to make an aspirin pill using acid.”

“Heck yeah!” Kara said. Lena beamed at her and led her downstairs. The research could wait. She had her friend back, and that was all that mattered. However, their fun ended almost right after Lena was finished with the aspirin.

“I have to go work on a history report with Barry,” Kara told her, “But I’ll see you in school in the morning. And then your house on Saturday.”

“I can’t wait,” Lena said. She gave Kara a wave goodbye, and got a pleasant surprise when the girl leaned in for a hug. She hugged her back, and Kara said,

“I’ll see you tomorrow.” Lena could see a flash of fear in her eyes as she said that, and she heard her heart race. Something was going on, but Lena knew it wasn’t really her business, so she said,

“Yeah, I’ll see you.” Kara left with Eliza, who gave Lena a wave goodbye, and Lena was left alone in the lab. She cleaned up her work station then went back to her research, wishing she could have a plate of Tessa’s pancakes to eat while she did it. She’d go, but she’d have to be with one of Mother’s guards since it was getting dark out, and she wasn’t feeling up to that. Maybe she’d just go home, and do it in her room while watching the moon. She did always love when it was full.

Mom dropped Kara off at Barry’s house, and she quickly had to send her away when she asked if she could speak to Barry’s parents.

“They’re probably busy, plus Barry and I have a lot of work to do,” Kara told her.

“Okay, but you know the rules. No staying up too late, it’s a school night, call me before you go to sleep, and eat something healthy for breakfast in the morning.”

“Yeah yeah, got it,” Kara said, “Bye Mom.”

“Bye honey,” Eliza said. She waited in front of the house while Kara went to the door, and didn’t leave until Kara walked into the house.

“She’s being protective,” Barry said,

“Yeah. It’s ‘cause she thinks the animal wreaking havoc on the town ruined our garage. Speaking of, have you gotten any research done about that? I tried to during math, but we weren’t supposed to have our computers out so I couldn’t get much.”

“Not really,” Barry admitted, “Other than what I showed you this morning, I haven’t really learned anything new. But that can wait. How are you feeling?”

“Jittery, and sweaty,” Kara said, “Is it always this hot in here?”

“The thermostat is set at sixty, I’m almost freezing,” Barry said, gesturing to the zip up hoodie he was wearing. Kara took off the sweater she’d worn to school, leaving her in the loose T-shirt she’d worn under it. It helped a bit, but she still felt really hot.

“I think it’s because of the moon,” she said, “It got worse as it started getting darker.”

“Then we’d better get ready. Come with me,” Barry said. He led Kara into his basement, “I had to pick up some of this from the hardware store, but I think it should be enough.” He took her to the wall, where there was a long string of chains.

“Um, Barry…” Kara started, “Are you sure about this?”

“I know I know, it looks weird. But if the stories I’ve read about this are true, it’s very possible that you’re not going to be yourself when this happens. So it’ll be best to keep you restrained.”

“Can’t you just lock the door?” Kara asked.

“I could, but I bet you’ll be strong enough to break it down.” A beat passed, “Look, if this is too much, maybe we could just go into the woods. You can transform then come back here when you’re done.” That sounded a lot better than being chained down, but Kara knew that was too risky.

“No, do it,” she said, “I almost lost control last night and it wasn’t even the full moon. I don’t want to take any chances.”

“You sure?” She nodded, “Okay. How tight?” Kara wanted to say as loose as possible, but safety first. She examined the chains and said,

“As tight as possible.” Barry nodded and said,

“Let’s do this.”

The chains didn’t hurt as badly as Kara thought they would, but that didn’t mean she was comfortable. She could move a bit, but not a lot. And the moon wasn’t helping. Her skin felt almost itchy, and she was very restless. She angrily pulled out the chains.

“Are you okay?” Barry asked from the table he was sitting on.

“I’m chained down and I’m about to turn into a wolf, what the hell do you think?” Kara asked angrily. Her eyes glowed with that statement. Barry cautiously backed away.

“My bad,” he said.

“I’m sorry,” Kara said, “I just-” she was cut off as a wave of pain went over her. She cried out as her arms and legs started to twist. She felt a crack, and realized that one of her ribs was breaking. She screeched in pain, and Barry ran to her.

“Kara, what’s happening?” he asked her. Kara’s eyes glowed their new amber hue. She looked up to her friend.

“Get away!” she shouted. Her voice came out like a growl. Barry jumped away in fear. His heart was pounding, Kara could hear it. The monitor on her wrist was going haywire until her arm cracked and the monitor flew off into the wall. 

“Kara! Can you hear me?” Barry asked, “Are you okay? What’s happening.”

“I said...get away!” Kara shouted, and with that, a large roar came out with her voice. It wasn’t human, she could tell that much. Barry was getting fuzzy, and her vision was clouding. She grunted in pain as her leg twisted in. Both Kara and Barry were so wrapped up in the transformation, that they didn’t hear the doorbell until it had rung three times.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” Barry said.

“Go get it,” Kara said between labored breaths, “Lock the door on your way up. And when the person leaves, don’t come back here until the morning.”

“Kara, I won’t leave you!”

“I said go!” Kara shouted at him, baring her teeth at him. The minute Barry saw the sharp teeth, he screamed and jumped away. He thundered up the stairs, and the door closed behind him with a slam. Kara collapsed to the ground to take a breath, and let out the biggest scream of her life as her bones continued to break one by one.

Barry ran to the door, hoping it wasn’t Kara’s mother. If she found out his parents weren’t home she’d want to speak to Kara, and that just couldn’t happen right now. He opened the door and saw his best friend Iris on the other side.

“Iris?” He asked, “What are you doing here?”

“I needed to talk to Kara about something and her Mom said she was here. Where is she?”

“Um, she’s in the shower,” Barry said, “She got some paint on herself when we were working on our project, and she might be in there for a while, so maybe you can ask her tomorrow.”

“This can’t wait. Can I come in?” Iris asked.

“Um yeah, sure,” Barry said. He couldn’t say no to her, they were too good of friends. But he had to get her out of there fast in case Kara got out of the basement, “So what did you want to talk to Kara about? Maybe I can help.”

“Well, you know how there was that animal attack a few days ago?” she asked him.  _ Dear God, why was everybody so interested in this? _

“Uh huh,” Barry said.

“This is the biggest news story this town has gotten in years. And I want to write the exclusive. I’m starting a blog, and I need Kara’s help.”

“Why Kara?”

“Because we used to do journalism together before she became a jock,” Iris said, “Plus, besides me, she was the best reporter we had on the school paper. I can’t do this without he-” Iris was cut off when there was a giant crash from the basement, “What was that?”

“Um, we’re watching a movie while we work. One of those action ones,” he said. There was another bang along with a growl, and Iris said,

“You should really lower the volume. That’s really loud,” she said.

“Yeah, I should go do that. And you should get going, Kara will probably be up there for a while.” Iris gave him a suspicious look and asked,

“Are you hiding something from me?”

“No why would you say that?”

“Barry, you know you can tell me anything, right?”

“Of course,” Barry said, his voice raising at the course. He cleared his throat, “Of course.”

“Okay. You’ll tell Kara I stopped by?” Iris asked.

“Absolutely,” he said, “You have a good night now.” Iris frowned at Barry’s weird language, and when there was another bang she said, “Seriously dude, turn the volume down. It sounds like the movie is physically happening in your basement.”

“Will do,” Barry said, “Goodnight Iris.” Iris left his house right on time, because right after she got into her car, a giant roar echoed through the house, “Oh dear.” Barry went into his kitchen and grabbed the broom from the pantry. He knew Kara had said not to come back, but she was his friend. He wasn’t going to leave her alone. He went back to the basement and opened the door. The cracking and growling had stopped, and it was now eerily quiet. Barry slowly descended the staircase. He held the broom higher and asked, “Kara? Kara, it’s me.” He left the last step and reached for the light switch next to it, only to see the room illuminated by two glowing amber eyes, “Oh God.” He heard a soft growl that slowly grew more menacing. Barry broke into a run and sped up the stairs as the wolf jumped and grabbed onto his leg.

“Kara! Kara it’s me!” Barry yelled, but to no avail. The teeth were ripping his pants, so Barry swatted at Kara with his broom. He hit her right in the head, which was enough of a distraction for him to get away. He thundered up the stairs and slammed the basement door shut, making sure to lock it. Barry looked down at his leg. His pants were ripped, and his face paled as he looked down at his ankle and saw two bite marks, with blood rolling down.

“Oh crap,” he said.

Kara’s eyes fluttered open. She could see the sun coming in through the closed basement door. It was morning. Kara looked down at her hands. They were no longer chained down. She turned around and saw the chains had been ripped off their poles, all except one which was attached to her leg. That must have been the only thing that had stopped her from leaving the basement. Her clothes were on the ground, and they were ripped beyond recognition. Kara looked at her body and realized she wasn’t wearing anything. She scanned the basement and saw a blanket on the couch. The chain, which was now a lot looser, gave her enough pull to make it there. She wrapped the blanket around her body, and then she called for her friend.

“Barry? Barry! I’m me again. Can you please come down?” It took a while for the door to open. Her friend came down, and he walked with a small limp. In his hand he had the clothes Kara had brought to change in the morning. He handed them to her and said,

“When I saw you last night, I had a feeling you’d need to change.”

“Thank you,” Kara said. Barry turned away as Kara slid the T-shirt over her head, but she needed to move the chain for the pants. She pulled the blanket back around her and said,

“Barry? Do you have the key, I need to get the chain off.” He handed it to her without turning around. Kara undid the chain and finished getting dressed, “You can turn around now.” Barry turned around and looked at her. Kara noticed an upset look on his face, “Barry? Are you okay?”

“What was it like? The morning after you got bitten?” he asked.

“Um, I guess I felt different. The bite had healed, but…” Kara trailed off. She could sense a pungent scent. The scent of blood, “Oh my God.” She followed the smell to Barry and moved the leg of his pajamas. She saw the bandage underneath, “Oh no.”

“It hasn’t been hurting. I’m too scared to check,” he said. Kara removed the bandage, expecting to see a clean ankle, only to see a ravaged cut covered in numbing cream.

“Barry, you’re still bleeding,” Kara said, “The bite didn’t heal.” 

“Wait, really?” he asked. Kara nodded,

“And if I bit you last night, it should be gone by now. Plus, I wasn’t bitten on the full moon, but the thing that bit me was a full wolf, like I was last night. What if only a special kind of wolf can do that? And what if that kind of wolf was the one that bit me?”

“You’re saying that you don’t think you can turn people?”

“I’m saying it’s a theory. Do you feel any different?”

“Not really. I’m hungry,” he admitted. Kara laughed and said,

“I don’t think you’re turning into a wolf, but I am  _ so _ sorry that I bit you. But what were you doing down there? I told you to lock the door.”

“And I was going too, but I guess I was kind of curious.”

“Barry!”

“What! It’s cool. My best friend is a wolf, that’s amazing! What was it like? Did you see better? Hear better? Could you like break stuff?”

“Slow down,” Kara said, “It was...it was honestly kind of scary. I didn’t have much control over myself, and the pain...it hurt so much. Every bone in my body was breaking. And soon, the pain was too much. I couldn’t see, and I could barely move. And then...I wasn’t me. I don’t even remember anything after the bones started to break. I don’t remember you coming down, or me biting you. I’m scared, Barry. What are we gonna do next month when your parents are here?”

“We’ll figure it out, we’ve got time,” Barry said, “Look, the important thing is that we kept you in the basement, and you didn’t hurt anybody.”

“Yeah, except you.”

“Hey, I’m fine,” he said, “I’m just glad you’re okay.” 

“But I’m not okay!” Kara exclaimed as she began to pace the room, “I don’t know what to do! I can’t handle this. Like, what if I need to go out of town over the full moon, or what if I have a field hockey game or my Mom needs me. Oh man, I really think I need to quit field hockey. I can barely handle the adrenaline of this pacing, how can I handle a whole game?”

“You can’t just quit-”

“Yes I can! What if it’s not safe. I could barely handle practicing at home before I lost my cool, and what if it's worse now because I had my first full moon?”

“We don’t know anything for sure, Kara! Just take a breath, it’s all going to be fine.” Kara sat on the couch and ran her fingers through her hair. She could barely focus. She decided the best thing she could do was focus on something else.

“Who uh, who came to the door last night?”

“Oh it was Iris,” Barry said, “She was actually looking for you. She wanted to ask if you wanted to work on a piece with her...about the animal attacks.”

“Are you joking?”  
“I wish I was. I know you and her aren’t as close as you were last year, but she really wants your help. But I understand if you don’t want to-”

“No,” Kara said, “I’m going to say yes.”

“You will?” Kara nodded,

“I can’t do this alone, and you’re great and all but Iris is one of the best investigators I know. If I want to learn more about this wolf, I’m going to need her help.”

“Hey, I’m a great investigator.”

“I know, and I’m still gonna need your help, but Iris will move me further. Hopefully we’ll be able to find who bit me and why they did.”

“I might have a theory on that,” Barry said.

“Alright. What is it?”

“Wolves like to travel in packs. A lone wolf is basically a sitting duck. My guess is this guy was trying to grow a pack. And that they started with you.”

“If this wolf wants to be a pack, then why doesn’t it come find me?”

“That’s what I’m worried about,” Barry said, “I feel like it  _ is _ looking. That’s why it came into town. And it’s probably why it’s staying.”

“That’s...scary,” Kara said, and Barry nodded.

“Scary indeed.” Kara and Barry sat in silence for a bit, until Kara checked her watch and said,

“We’d better get to school. I don’t want to be late. Have you seen my heart monitor?”

“Over there,” Barry said. It was on the ground next to the couch. The kind of torn up couch. Kara winced and said,

“I’m sorry about the damage,” she said, “I’ll help you clean it up.”

“It’s okay,” Barry said, “I’m just glad you’re okay. I’m gonna go up and change, then we can go.”

“Cool,” Kara said. She put the heart rate monitor back on her arm before heading up the stairs. While Barry got ready, she searched his drawers for something to eat. She was starving. She found a box of Cookies and Cream Pop Tarts. Those would do. She opened a pouch and popped them in the toaster. When it dinged, the sound was almost too much for Kara’s ears, “Ouch!”

“Kara, you okay?” Barry asked from upstairs. 

“Yeah...I think,” she added more quietly. She put the pastries on a plate and was eating one when Barry came down, “I made Pop Tarts.”

“Awesome,” he said. He took one and asked, “You sure you’re okay? I heard you yell.”

“It’s my ears,” Kara said, “They’re more sensitive today. Maybe if I keep transforming, the super senses get stronger.”

“Makes sense,” Barry said, “All the times before, you were half girl, half wolf. But last night you turned into an actual wolf. So more of that power is inside of you now.”

“That’s actually kind of cool,” Kara admitted for probably the first time.

“I know, right?” Barry said, and Kara laughed. She liked how she could share this with him. Her phone buzzed, and she expected it to be her Mom checking in on her, so she got a pleasant surprised when the text on her phone said,

“Hey Kara, it’s Lena. Thanks for giving me your number, it’s nice to text. Just a question for tomorrow. What’s your favorite movie? I like Titanic, but I know it’s not for everyone. Let me know and I can rent it.” Kara smiled and responded with,

“Working Girl. I love rom coms. But if that’s not your speed, I love any Star Wars movie, even the prequels. People say those aren’t that good, I disagree.” 

“Star Wars and Working Girl it is. I’ll see you at school,” the next text came.

“Who has you all smiley?” Barry asked.

“Nothing, it’s just Lena, I think she wants to watch movies tomorrow.”

“Oh right, you’re going to the Luthor mansion. That should be exciting. I’ve heard kids at school say that every door in the house is made of pure gold.”

“I highly doubt that,” Kara said.

“Hey, you never know,” he said, “Let me know if it’s true, I could win a bet.”

“Yeah whatever,” Kara said, “Come on, let’s go to school. I’ve got a field hockey practice to attend.” Barry smiled and said,

“Heck yeah you do, let’s get out of here.” Kara slid her backpack over her shoulders and followed Barry outside. It was a nice day. Warm and sunny. Kara took a breath of air. It felt good, almost perfect. She and Barry walked to school, neither of them noticing the figure watching them, with their yellow eyes glowing as bright as the sun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys enjoyed! Next chapter will have more Kara and Lena moments :)


	5. Feels Pretty Good

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The morning after Kara's first transition, she meets a surprising new friend. Lena learns a bit more about Kara's past.

Lena entered the diner wiping sleep from her eyes. She usually didn’t feel tired, but her body still liked rest. She hadn’t been able to get any last night once the howling had started. Lena didn’t even know that this part of the country had wolves.

“Lena hey,” Tessa said as Lena came up to the counter, “Your usual?”

“Yes please,” Lena said. Tessa went to put the order for the pancakes in, and Lena opened her new phone so she could look up descriptions for the movies Kara had suggested. She vaguely knew about Star Wars, but she’d never heard about Working Girl before in her life. Kara had sent her a moving picture five minutes ago of a cat dancing on a table.

“Tessa, how do you send a moving picture?” Lena asked as the woman returned.

“Moving picture?” she asked with a frown. Lena showed her the phone, and Tessa laughed, “Oh, you mean a gif. You just find them on the internet.”

“Gif? How’s that spelled?”

“G-I-F,” Tessa said, “Who’s sending them to you nowadays?”

“My friend Kara,” Lena said, “You know Kara, her Mom’s doing research at my company.”

“Yeah I know her. She’s uh, she’s a character.” She didn’t say character in a good tone. Lena frowned and looked up from her phone.

“What do you mean?”

“It’s nothing, I shouldn’t have said anything,” Tessa said, “I’m gonna go check on the pancakes-”

“No wait, please,” Lena said before Tessa could leave, “Is something the matter with her?” 

“I wouldn’t say something’s the matter with her,” Tessa said, “I would just say that she isn’t the best apple, that’s all.”  _ Not the best apple? But Kara was so nice! _

“But I thought...she was so nice to me,” Lena said.

“She was nice to me too,” Tessa said, “Then she and her friend Barry came back here and totally wrecked the place for fun. I called the cops and all that, but they’re both friends with the Captain’s daughter, and Barry’s Dad is a CSI on the force. Convinced me to go easy on them, that sort of thing. But Kara’s definitely the ring leader in schemes like that, the girl’s been arrested multiple times. It’s a small town, news like that’ll get around. Just goes to show, you can’t trust someone at first glance.”

“Yeah, you definitely can’t,” Lena said.

“Just be careful with her, kiddo. I’d hate to see you get hurt,” Tessa said. Lena gave her a small nod, “I’m gonna go check on your food, alright?”

“Okay,” Lena said. She didn’t really feel that hungry right now. She felt almost betrayed. She opened her phone. Tessa had said small town, so maybe small things made the news. She opened her search bar and typed in “Kara Danvers.” The results that followed were just plain awful. Kara Danvers vandalized a small town diner, Kara Danvers gets intoxicated during Mom’s big night. There were hundreds of articles like this. Lena was surprised she hadn’t heard stuff like this already. Maybe she’d kind of put herself in a bubble by just hanging out with Kara and Barry. Tessa returned with the food,

“One stack of blueberry pancakes,” she said as she put them down. She saw the hurt expression on Lena’s face, “Oh dear. Baby, I didn’t mean to upset you with those. It’s just that-”

“It’s fine,” Lena said, “Thanks for telling me, Tessa.” She grabbed her fork and took a bite of the pancakes, “Delicious. You really should give me the recipe.”

“No why would I do that? You’d never come back if I did.”

“Not true,” Lena said. She liked talking to Tessa too much for that. Because as it seemed, she was the only person in town who she could really trust.

Kara entered the school feeling a lot better than she had when she’d woken up. The slams of the locker doors weren’t bothering her, the conversations between other students didn’t feel like a crazy buzzing in her ears, and when the warning bell for homeroom rang, it didn’t bother her one bit. She saw Iris by her locker, and the girl waved her over. Kara went to join her and said,

“Barry said you wanted to talk to me.”

“Barry was correct,” she said, “I assume he told you about our conversation last night.”

“He did. That’s a pretty hard story. Someone was murdered,” Kara said.

“Part of being a journalist is stepping out of your comfort zone. And I’m not afraid, but I would feel better having some help on this.”

“I’ll do it,” Kara said, “You’re one of the best journalists I know, and I know that you’ll be able to crack this case. But we have to be safe about this. If this is as bad as the articles are saying, then we could be walking into murder, with no one to save us.”

“That’s dark, Kara,” Iris said, “Are you okay? When I went to Barry’s house last night-”

“I’m fine,” Kara said abruptly. She saw a look of concern in Iris’s eyes, so she calmed her tone, “I’m fine. I was just up late working on a project, I’m a little on edge.”

“That’s fine,” Iris said, “Can we meet after school?”

“I can’t, I have to go to work with my Mom” Kara said, “And I’m busy Saturday. Could we do Sunday?” Iris nodded and said,

“Sunday’s fine with me. I’ll see you there.” Kara nodded, and watched Iris leave to go to her homeroom. She felt a bit of pride at the fact that Iris had come to her, especially since she’d quit working on the paper to focus on field hockey full time. That reminded her that she had practice tomorrow afternoon. She’d been nervous about it before last night, but now she felt better. Like she could do anything! Maybe that transformation was good for something after all. She happily pranced into homeroom and smiled big when she saw Lena sitting in her seat, hunched over a book. Kara tapped her on the shoulder and said,

“Hey, whatcha reading?” Lena turned from her book, and Kara’s smile faltered. Lena didn’t seem all that happy to see her. Kara decided not to read into it too much and said, “So about tomorrow, I’ve got field hockey until three, so I should be able to get there at six. And don’t worry, I won’t forget the ice cream.” Lena nodded slowly and said,

“Oh right, tomorrow. You know, I was looking at my upcoming assignments for school, and for the company, and I don’t know if I have time.” Kara’s face fell. Lena really was upset with her. But why? She hadn’t even done anything! At least, as far as she knew. 

“But I don’t understand. This morning you said-”

“Things changed, Kara. Maybe another time,” she said. She returned to her book, and turned away from Kara, who was now really confused. Barry came in and said a hello to both of them. Kara responded, but Lena just gave a half hearted wave. Kara knew it was a bit of an invasion of privacy since she was doing it on purpose, but she allowed herself to listen to Lena’s heart. It was beating fast, not like she was scared or angry, but like she was nervous. 

“Lena?” she tried again. She got no answer. Her feelings from this morning were slipping away, and she could hear the beeps of the monitor on her arm getting faster and faster. Sweat was beginning to drip from her forehead. She couldn’t be here right now. She raised her hand.

“Yes Ms. Danvers?” their teacher asked.

“Can I go to the nurse?” Kara asked, “I’m not feeling well.”

“Of course. Let me write you a pass,” he said. She walked to the front and took the pass from him. She could feel Barry’s concern on her back, but she needed to go. She gave one last look to Lena when she was at the door, but the girl wouldn’t look at her. She left the room, and while she was planning on going to the nurse’s office to lay down, she needed to be outside. She crumpled up the pass and threw it in the trash before heading down the stairs and out the school door.

Lena sat at a bench in the courtyard and ate the apple she’d packed with her lunch. She could see Kara and Barry’s table, but Kara wasn’t there. Barry was eating with someone else. Lena used her ears to listen to their conversation.

“I’m not sure where she went, Iris,” Barry was saying, “She left to got to the nurse during homeroom, and never came back for first period.”

“Weird. She hasn’t skipped school in a while,” Iris said, “Have you tried calling her?”

“She still doesn’t have a phone,” Barry said, “I considered calling her Mom, but if I do, I’ll be getting her in trouble.”

“She’ll probably be in trouble anyway once the school gets those absence notices.”

“It just makes no sense,” Barry said, “Kara’s made her mistakes, I have too. But she really did want to do better this year, she told me as much. Can I tell you something in confidence?”

“Of course,” Iris said.

“A few days ago, when you and I...you know.” Iris nodded and Lena frowned.  _ What was that supposed to mean? _ “Well, I was supposed to meet Kara at the mall. We were going to go into this store to steal back an article Kara wrote that they used without permission. I was supposed to be the lookout, but I ditched her, and she took all the blame. Alex picked her up from the station so her Mom wouldn’t find out, but they got into a huge fight, so a few days ago, Kara told me she wanted to start keeping her nose clean, that kind of thing. Which is why I don’t understand why she’d throw it away so fast.”

“Did something happen today?” Iris asked.

“Not that I know of, she seemed great when we got to school,” he said, “She was quiet during homeroom, so maybe it was that? But I don’t know, she was with Lena, and she likes Lena a lot, so I doubt that had anything to do with it.” 

“Do you want to go and find her?” Barry shook his head,

“I can’t leave, I’ve got a test next period. Will you let me know if you see her.”

“Yeah of course,” Iris said. The end bell for lunch rang and he said,

“I gotta run, I’ll see you after, okay?”

“Sure,” Iris said. The two of them ended their conversation, and Lena quickly ducked away before she could look like an eavesdropped. She took her last bite of apple and threw the core in a nearby trash can. As she was putting her book away, she pulled out her phone and opened up her conversation with Kara, typing out,

“Hey Kara, I’m really sorry about how I acted in homeroom today. Please come back to school and I can explain. -Lena.” Lena slid the phone back into her pocket and went to class, hoping that Kara would see the message soon.

Kara watched the TV across from her seat in the bar. It was a baseball game that had just gone to commercial. A pity, it had just been getting good.

“Want another root beer?” the bartender asked. Kara looked down at her glass and realized that she’d been sucking ice water through her straw for the past ten minutes. She nodded and watched as the man topped it off. He handed it back to her and asked, “Shouldn’t you be in school, kid?”

“I guess,” Kara said. He shook his head.

“Stay in school kid,” He said, “Stay in school.” He walked off to tend to another customer, while Kara swirled her root beer around with her straw. She was halfway done when the door opened and a police officer walked in. Kara didn’t recognize him, but in the small chance he recognized her, she figured that she needed to go. She dropped some money for the root beer on the counter and quickly left the bar. She was walking down a path in the woods to go to the park when she heard a twig snap. She picked it up with her wolf hearing, which was enough to tell her that the twig wasn’t that close. She decided not to worry about it and kept walking. However, she heard the twig snap again as she went deeper in, and this time she could tell it was closer. Her nose picked up a scent of pine needles, dirt, and...there was one more scent Kara couldn’t identify at first. It was salty, and her mouth felt a tang as the scent washed over her. Her skin crawled as she realized what it was. It was blood. She could now hear footsteps...no, not footsteps. Pawsteps. Kara broke into a run, but her pursuer was faster. She felt rough claws dig into her shoulders. She screeched in pain, and she could feel her teeth come out. Her eyes glowed, and using her strength, she shook her attacker. She faced them and growled loudly. She expected to see a wolf, but instead saw the bloodied face of a girl who didn’t look much older than her. Her face calmed a bit when she saw Kara, and as her eyes returned to normal, she said,

“You’re really like me. I heard you last night, and I made the assumption, but I never would have thought.” The girl didn’t seem that dangerous, but Kara still remained cautious. The girl was covered in blood, and there was no way of telling whose it was. She seemed to notice Kara’s discomfort, because she looked at herself and said, “Oh. The blood. It’s mine, if that’s what you were wondering.” 

“I need to go,” Kara said.

“Wait!” the girl said as Kara was turning away, “I’m sorry for jumping on you, but I needed to be sure. I had no plans on seriously hurting you, honest! Can you please just hear me out?”

“Why should I?”

“Because I’m like you,” she said. Kara watched her eyes glow yellow, “And when I first turned, I would have killed to have this.”

“How long have you been like this?” Kara asked.

“Since I was 13, so almost three years,” she said.  _ She was only fifteen?  _ She looked older, “What about you?” Kara wanted to sound cool and say longer, but she was worried the girl would ask her questions she wouldn’t be able to answer, so she said,

“I was bitten about a week ago. My first transformation was last night.” 

“With that ruckus coming from that house last night, I could tell,” The girl said. Kara scoffed. She hadn’t been  _ that _ loud, “I could help you if you’d like. With control and all that.”

“I don’t need your help,” Kara said, “In fact, I’m fine.” The smell of blood was getting more pungent, so she asked, “Are you?”

“No, and you aren’t going to be either.” The girl pulled something out of her inner jacket pocket, and Kara backed away at first, afraid it was a gun, but instead saw a bloodied arrow.

“What is that?” she asked.

“An arrow,” she said to Kara as if she were the dumbest person on the planet. Kara rolled her eyes and said,

“I know it’s an arrow! Why do you have it?”

“It was shot into me while I was transitioning,” she said, “Not everybody gets the joys of having a nice cozy basement.”  _ That was a fair criticism _ . 

“Oh my God,” Kara said, “Are you hurt? Do we need to go to the hospital?”

“I can heal myself,” the girl said, “My point is, us wolves gotta stick together. A wolf without a pack is pretty much dead.”

“You have a pack?” Kara asked.  _ There were others. _

“Well...I have you,” she said.  _ Oh. _ “We can be each other’s pack!”

“I don’t even know you,” Kara said.

“We can get to know each other. We already have so much in common. We’re both wolves, we’re both girls...are you in college?”

“High school,” Kara said. That was weird, someone just a few weeks ago had asked if she was in middle school. She was kind of flattered that someone thought she was older.

“Sweet, I’m in high school too! Well, I should be. I don’t have a permanent place of residence, so I don’t go to school. Downside of being hunted.”

“How long have you been running?”

“Pretty much ever since I was turned,” she said, “This uh, this hasn’t been easy for me. I was kicked out of my house after an angry outburst, so I’ve kinda just been hopping from city to city, hoping to find others like me. But no luck...until now.”

“What about the wolf who bit you?” Kara asked. The girl shrugged,

“I don’t know anything about that. I went looking for them, obviously, but nothing. For all I know, it’s the same wolf that bit you.”  _ So that took care of Kara’s next question.  _ Not that she thought this girl bit her. That wolf had been huge. This girl wasn’t. “Could we meet later? Maybe when you’re done with school? I really would get to know you.”

“Can’t, I’m busy.”

“What about the weekend?”

“Busy,” Kara said. She was meeting Iris on Sunday, and she was hopefully still meeting Lena tomorrow, “In fact, I need to go.”

“Please don’t think I’m being too forward,” the girl said, “I’m not a creep, I promise. Everything I told you was true. And if you want to be kept safe from the hunters, you’ll need me.”

“How do I know you didn’t just shoot yourself to convince me there were hunters.”

“Because what person would do that?”

“A wolf who can heal themselves.” 

“Okay, that’s fair,” she said, “But I’m not lying. Meet me here, same time next week. I’ll bring proof of everything you need.”

“I can’t do this time, I’m supposed to be in school.” 

“Fine, then meet me here, next week, 11 PM.”  _ 11? She was crazy! _ “I know that’s late, but we’re wolves, the night is our prime.”

“Okay, whatever. I’ll meet you,” Kara said. She would bring Barry with her. She wasn’t meeting a random girl alone when it was dark, “I really do need to go.”

“Cool,” she said, “But before you go, we should exchange names. I’m Samantha, Sam for short.”

“Kara,” she said. She and Sam shook hands, and Sam said,

“See you in a week, Kara.” She then flounced away. Kara shook her head. For a wolf scared of being caught, Sam sure liked to make a scene. Kara turned to leave the forest and head back to school. Her phone buzzed in her pocket. She took it out, and saw a text from L. Luthor.  _ Lena. _ Kara opened the conversation and read,

“Hey Kara, I’m really sorry about how I acted in homeroom today. Please come back to school and I can explain.”  _ She wasn’t mad at her. _ A huge smile spread across Kara’s face. She typed back,

“I’ll be right there! -K.” She shut her phone off and ran to school. The text from Lena was basically fueling her. As she ran through the woods, she sprang into a jump that propelled her past miles of trees. She skidded to the ground, landing on all fours. She found herself laughing, and laughing hard. That had been amazing! She pulled herself back to her feet and continued her run, enjoying the sounds of the birds around her and the stream that was a few miles down. She normally wouldn’t be able to hear it from where she was, but now she could, and that was awesome! Being a wolf wasn’t the dream, but damn, she couldn’t say there weren’t parts of it she didn’t just love.

Lena had been checking her phone all throughout history for a response from Kara, but nothing came. She’d pretty much thought she’d screwed up for good until her phone buzzed while she was putting her books away.

“I’ll be right there,” the text read, and she’d signed with a simple K that for some reason made Lena giggle. And she never giggled. The door at the end of the hall entered and Lena saw Kara. When she said right there, she’d meant it, considering the text was sent three minutes ago. Lena assumed that Kara hadn’t gone far, otherwise she’d be out of breath. But Kara looked beautiful. Her hair, which had been in a ponytail this morning, now swooped down her back in waves that looked professional, and her eyes looked bright and wide. Lena couldn’t believe she’d bought into all those articles. Looking at Kara now, all she saw was an angel.

“Kara!” she called out to her, lifting her arm. Kara saw her and practically skipped over. When she got to the locker, she beamed at Lena and said,

“Boy was I glad to get your text. I got a little worried this morning. If I did something wrong, I promise you, I probably just wasn’t in a good place. But I don’t think I did anything, but if I did-”

“Kara, you didn’t do anything,” Lena said, “I was the one who was wrong.” She opened her phone and pulled up the articles she’d been looking at, “I listened to somebody who didn’t have the best impression of you, and that led me to these.” Kara started to read the articles, and her face paled.

“Lena I’m so sorry. I was going to tell you. I really was, at your house tomorrow. But then this morning happened, and I thought we weren’t going to meet, and I had a bad night last night which is why I left in the first place, and I'm kinda nervous for field hockey tomorrow, so that's got me on edge, but basically, if you don’t want to hang out because of this, I understand.” 

“Kara, I would still like to hang out tomorrow, if that’s okay with you.” Kara let out a sigh of relief and said,

“That’s awesome, that’s really great.”

“And if you still want to tell me more tomorrow, I really am open to listen.” She noticed Kara’s expression change a bit after that.  _ Was she happy? _ No, happy didn’t describe her expression. She was relieved, but it was more than that. It was like a weight had been lifted, and the fact that Lena was able to do that made her feel really, really good.

“Thank you,” she said, “That means more than you know.” The bell for class rang, and Kara said, “I better get going. I might get into some trouble for ditching so…”

“Barry actually covered for you. Your teachers think you’ve been in the nurse’s office for the past couple of hours,” Lena said.

“And they believed him?” Kara asked.

“I may have given him some help,” Lena said, “They had no reason not to believe the new girl, right?” Kara laughed and said,

“You’re so bad.”

“Your influence I suppose,” Lena said with a twinkle in her eye. A smile spread across Kara’s face and she asked,

“Exactly. Wanna walk to class together?” Lena nodded and linked arms with Kara, who walked with her to physics. It was last period, so she said, “I’ll see you in the lab. Bye Lena.”

“See you,” Lena told her friend. She watched her walk away, and there was a small skip in her step. Lena didn’t know what it was about Kara, but she always knew how to make her day ten times better. She liked to think of it as the Kara Effect. Anytime she was with her, she was able to forget about all of her problems. She didn’t have to think like a CEO, or like a Luthor. She could be Lena. And being Lena felt pretty damn good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who has been reading! Next chapter will finally see Kara and Lena at Lena's house :)


	6. You've Got a Friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara hangs out at Lena's house

Kara looked at the field in front of her. It looked like it always did, with the grass that needed to be cut, and the indents of cleats, but it felt different. She felt different. This was her first practice since her transformation, and that euphoric feeling she’d had yesterday was no longer a thing. Her hearing was still better, which was nice, but her nerves were all over the place. Coach blew the whistle, and Kara put her mouthguard in. Ninety minutes, she could do it. She got into her forward position, and planted her stick on the ground. The ball was shot towards her sooner than she’d have liked, so she grabbed it with speed, and started to run. She could hear her monitor beeping fast, so she slowed her pace a bit. If she went to fast, she’d go straight off the field. She had a clear shot at the goal when her teammate playing defense came up to block her. Kara swung her stick to the side to keep the ball with her, but she got checked fast. She crashed onto the ground and rolled over. The whistle blew again.

“Danvers?” she heard the coach ask, “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine, Coach,” Kara said. She had to pull herself back up, because whoever had checked her wasn’t feeling generous. She dusted off her shorts and went back towards the ball. She still had a chance at getting it back before the play was done and they had to do shooting drills. Kara was nervous for shooting drills. The hole in her garage still haunted her. She bolted towards the ball, and as she was making her move to grab it, she was body slammed to the ground. The whistle blew again.

“Sinclair! Strike two!” She shouted.

“Sorry coach,” she said without an ounce of remorse. She looked at Kara and said, “You might want to actually try, Danvers. You’re making this way too easy.”  _ Screw you. _ One of the younger girls on defense helped her up.

“Are you okay?” the girl asked her. Kara nodded and said,

“Yeah. Word of advice, stay out of Veronica’s way when she’s feeling testy.” The girl nodded before returning to her post. The whistle blew to continue the play, and Kara went for the ball. She used her hearing to listen for Veronica, and when she heard the footsteps get closer, she was ready. Veronica was making the move to check her, so Kara curved around on her left foot and found herself launching from the air. She did a perfect flip in the air before landing on the ground. Veronica stumbled forward and landed flat on her face. Kara regained control of the ball and shot it towards the goal with all her strength. It went right through the net, and she winced. She’d have to work on power next time. The whistle blew again and she frowned. Coach never blew the whistle after a goal.

“What gives?” she asked, taking her mouthguard out.

“Stick rule,” she said, “The stick goes over the waist, or the ball goes in the air, the goal doesn’t count.”  _ Dammit. _ She wasn’t wrong, Kara just hadn’t been thinking about that. 

“Get the ball, Danvers,” she said, “Then take a lap. Everyone else, line up at the opposite goal.” They probably wouldn’t be able to use the one Kara had shot through for a while. Kara sighed and ran off to get the ball. She found it nestled in a bush at the far side of the field. She pulled it out and went back to everyone else, hoping Coach had forgotten about the lap. Unfortunately for Kara, she hadn’t, so she soon had to leave to run, but for her first practice play, that hadn’t been too bad. Veronica Sinclair had always been on her case, and today hadn’t been any different. It was normal, and she liked that.

After she finished running, she returned to the line to take her shot. She felt Coach clap her on her back, and the woman said,

“Try not to break this net too, Danvers.”

“Sure, Coach,” Kara said, hoping she could keep up that promise. She moved her stick towards the ball, and did a few mini passes before starting her drill. There were two people she had to get through, then she could make her shot. Veronica was one of them, and she looked vengeful. Kara put her mouthguard back in and slid her goggles back over her face. She could do this. The whistle blew, and Kara went forward. 

She dodged the first girl easily, but Veronica was a different story. She was getting right on her. Kara could feel her breath on her shoulder, and felt the hairs on her neck raise. She had to get around her without raising her stick, otherwise she wouldn’t play right. So, instead of going up, she went down. She bent her knees, and basically slid on the grass to avoid Veronica. She used her claws to anchor herself to the grass. She could hear Veronica trip again, and a smug smile crossed her face. She used her newfound strength to pull herself up, and she ran to the goal. The girl on goal was a freshman who honestly stood no chance, so Kara’s only objective was to get the ball in without breaking the net. She loosened her grip a bit on the stick. She skidded to a halt in front of the goal and she swung, making sure to keep her stick and the ball on the ground. Kara was worried she’d gone too weak, since the goalie almost caught it, but luckily for her, it rolled right past. Victory!

“Yes!” she said to herself.  _ Take that, Sinclair! _ Kara turned to give the girl a smug look, only to see her on the ground with an ice pack being applied to her ankle.  _ Crap _ . Kara ran over and asked, “Veronica, are you okay?”

“I’m fine!” she spat back, even though she wasn’t. Coach instructed two of the subs to take her to the nurse, then called for the next group of four to go.

“Danvers,” Coach said, and while Kara was expecting a lecture on Veronica’s injury, she instead got a pat on the shoulder, “Nice play.” Now that was more like it.

Lena gently smoothed the blanket on the couch, then made sure all the pillows were propped up in the right way. She couldn’t risk this all falling apart when Kara got here. She walked into the kitchen, where she had two place settings out for dinner. One of her Mother’s guards was watching her intently, and she immediately shrunk away. She knew the woman was just doing her job, but she still didn’t like the security. It was too much, especially because she still needed to feed before Kara got here, and she couldn’t do that with all the guards watching. She’d need to drink from one of the bags in her room, but everytime she went upstairs, a guard insisted they follow. She hoped they’d back off when Kara got here, or that would be embarrassing. She was heading upstairs when she noticed one guard leave his position and start to follow her up.

“I’m just going upstairs,” Lena told him.

“Your Mother requested one of us is with you at all times, ma’am,” he said. Lena didn’t want the man to get in trouble, so she just asked him to stand outside her room. 

“Of course,” he said. Lena walked inside her bedroom and pulled her cooler full of blood from under her bed. She was able to keep it plugged in with a weirdly placed outlet, and it kept her food cold. It was nowhere near as the fresh stuff, but it fed her, which in turn kept her as alive as she could be. She finished drinking the bag, and deposited it in her hidden trash can in the bathroom. She then brushed her teeth, making sure to get the fangs too. She couldn’t risk Kara seeing anything. Once she was done, she changed into the outfit she’d laid out before breakfast in the morning. She hoped it wasn’t too fancy, she and Kara hadn’t made an official dress code. But she wanted to look nice, and it was just a skirt and blouse, so nothing too bad. She smoothed down the skirt and walked downstairs when she heard the knock on the door. One of the guards went to get it, but she quickly got in the way.

“It’s just my friend,” Lena said.

“Ms. Luthor, we were told to open the door to all guests who arrive,” she said.  _ Of course _ . Lena nodded and said,

“Fine. Okay.” God, Kara was about to think she was such a snob. The guard opened the door, where Kara stood on the other side, hot fudge sundaes in hand.

“Hey Lena!” she said happily, “And others. I’m Kara.” Lena wasn’t expecting Kara to introduce herself to the guards, but she found it nice that she did. One of them held her ice cream while the other closed the door, “Sorry I’m late. Mom had to go into work so I had no ride.”

“No, you’re actually right on time,” Lena said, “Come on, we can go sit in the den.” Lena took the ice cream from the guards and showed Kara where to go. She could tell that Kara was in awe. She was looking around the house and gaping. Lena chuckled a bit at how cute she was, and also took the time to admire her outfit. It was a pink button up with black pants, and Lena realized it was the first time she’d seen Kara in pants since meeting her. She looked good.

“Is that real gold?” she asked, pointing to the vases on the fireplace mantle. Lena laughed and shook her head,

“No, it’s just copper, but Mother would have people believing it,” she said.

“Yeah no wonder, it looks so real,” Kara said, rubbing her hand on the vase. She then turned and hopped on the couch next to Lena, “Oh, should I take my shoes off?”

“No, you’re okay,” Lena said, “So, how was your practice? You had one today, right?”

“Rocky at first, but then it was cool,” Kara said. She stretched after she said that, which was when Lena got a good look at her arms. She could no longer hear the beeping of the monitor, and the bulge wasn’t visible under the sleeve. Had she taken it off?

“Cool,” Lena said, “I’ve never played field hockey before. Is it fun?”

“It’s alright,” Kara said, “It can get kinda tiring though. There’s so much running. One time I had a morning practice the day after my sister’s seventeenth birthday. I had so much pizza, and we had to run a perimeter around the school. I thought I would be able to make it, but I threw up all of it within the first minute of the run. It was so bad!”

“No!” Lena exclaimed.

“Worst moment of my life, and Coach thought I was drunk, which honestly would have been better because I was so mortified.” Lena tried to hold back her laughter, but she couldn’t. She soon found herself doubling over from laughter imagining it.

“Hey!” Kara said, “It’s not funny.” But even she was laughing at this point. When Lena was finally able to stop, she wiped forming tears from her eyes and asked,

“So, I made some food if you want some, but this ice cream looks pretty good.”

“Oh yeah,” Kara said, “I got it right before coming here, so the fudge should be really hot. But I do want to try your food.”

“Later, this looks so good,” Lena said, taking the cup of ice cream. She opened it and allowed the scent of fudge and vanilla to overflow her senses. If Mother found out, she would been furious. Not a fan of sugar, that woman. But she was about to be a CEO. Mother didn’t have that control over her anymore. She scooped out a piece of ice cream with her spoon and tasted it. She paused for a moment, and Kara noticed, because she gently shook Lena’s shoulder and asked,

“Lena, you good?”

“This tastes amazing,” she said, “It’s just that it’s been so long that I’d kind of forgotten how good it was.” She took another bite, “Oh, that’s good.” 

“Here, take mine,” Kara said. Lena was hesitant, so she continued with, “Really, I actually just had some of this like three days ago, so…”

“Thanks,” Lena said, “Maybe one day we could go together?”

“Yeah,” Kara said, “I’d like that.”

After eating the fried rice Lena had made, which Kara had been pretty much in love with, the two girls went into Lena's room. It was ten times less messy than Karas, but that was probably because Lena didn’t really have a lot. Besides the bed spread and stuff for school, there wasn’t a lot in there besides furniture. 

“Sorry, I know it’s a little depressing,” Lena apologized, and Kara shook her head.

“No! I like it a lot, actually. Is purple your favorite color?” she asked, pointing to the wall.

“It is. That’s why I picked this room, all the others were either beige or red. I don’t mind red, but I didn’t want the beige.”

“Oh yeah totally. Now beige is depressing,” Kara said, “My Mom’s room is beige, but that’s because one time when I was ten, I tried painting it with my water colors, and that shit got everywhere, and her walls were white. She didn’t want to do anything fancy once they got it all cleaned off so now it’s boring beige. Mine is blue though. I love blue.” 

“Me too, blue is great,” Lena said, “My room in my old house was blue.” At the mention of that, Kara realized that she didn’t know that much about Lena’s early life, other than that she was adopted, and she went to boarding school.

“What was it like? Where you grew up?” A pained look crossed Lena’s face, and Kara was about to apologize for asking when she said,

“It wasn’t too bad. I mean, I wasn’t there a lot because I went away for school, but in the few months that it was there, I was able to make some good memories. Mostly with my older brother Lex, who is…” she trailed off, and Kara frowned at the look of sadness that crossed over her face.

“What is it?” she asked.

“There was an accident,” Lena said, “My Mother says it was an animal attack, but they still don’t know what really happened, so I don’t either. It was bad though. It was also the reason we moved here.”

“Oh my God,” Kara said. She really did have no idea. She couldn’t fathom the pain of losing a sibling. Alex was mad at her, she knew that, but she couldn’t imagine having to live without her. 

“It’s okay, really,” Lena said, but Kara knew it wasn’t from the tears threatening to fall from Lena’s eyes. Her heart held a steady beat, but it didn’t match how Lena looked on the outside. Kara stretched her hand out and wiped the tear away. Lena turned to her, and for a moment it felt like they were frozen. Like time had just stopped. 

“You don’t have to be okay,” Kara eventually said, “Not if you don’t want to.” Lena blinked in surprise, and Kara watched as she quickly pulled away and said,

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to get so emotional.”

“It’s okay-”

“No, it’s not,” Lena said, “I mean, we’ve just met and I’m throwing all of my baggage on you. It isn’t...it’s not professional.”

“We’re friends Lena,” Kara said, “We don’t have to be professional.” Lena gave her a small smile, pushed some hair away from her face and said,

“You know you’re the first person who’s ever acted like that with me. Well first person besides my…” It looked like her tears were going to start again, so Kara said,

“Hey hey, it’s okay.” She took Lena’s hand and said, “Don’t worry, you don’t have to hold anything in with me.” Kara was hoping that would get Lena to open up to her a bit more, but what she didn’t expect was for her new friend to straight up begin sobbing. Kara was nearly unsure what to do. Lena’s tears were coming out big and thick, and her body was shaking, so Kara did what she would do to comfort Barry or Alex after a bad day. She wrapped her arms around Lena and rested her head on her shoulder. She pulled her close and let her cry it all out, every last bit.

Once Lena had composed herself, she realized that Kara knew how to have a really good time without having to leave the house.

“I spent half of freshman year grounded for all the stuff Barry and I pulled, I can make fun out of anything,” Kara said as she rifled through the cabinets in Lena’s kitchen. Lena just laughed and watched as Kara started playing one of the pots with a wooden spoon like it was a drum. She then gave the spoon to Lena and said, “Your turn!”

“No no, I can’t stop this,” Lena said.

“Your loss,” Kara said, pointing the spoon in her face. She started to bang the pan in the familiar rhythm of  _ It’s My Life _ by Bon Jovi. Lena didn’t really take Kara for a rock girl, but she had to say, she wasn’t minding watching her dance to the music. It almost made her tap her foot a little. Kara noticed this because she tried to pull Lena in to dance with her.

“Oh no, I don’t dance,” Lena said. Kara gave her a cute pout and said,  
“One day, I will get you.” Lena shook her head and laughed. Kara finished with the pan, then asked Lena what else she wanted to do. 

“We can watch the DVDs you requested,” Lena said. She took Kara to the living room and showed her the box set of  _ Star Wars _ and DVD of  _ Working Girl _ she’d picked up from the video store on the way home from school yesterday. 

“Oooh yes! I almost forgot,” Kara said. Lena settled herself on the couch while Kara debated which one to watch. She eventually settled on  _ Star Wars. _

“Why are we starting on Episode 4?” Lena asked as she put it in the player, “Why not 1?”

“Episode 4 is the first one that came out,” Kara explained.  _ Weird _ , “Episodes 1-3 are a prequel to 4, 5, and 6, so we watch those later.”

“But why is it like that?” Kara shrugged and said,

“Honestly, I don’t know, but we just have to start with this one.”

“Okay,” Lena said. She tried to focus on the movie, but it was kind of hard because of Kara’s very animated explanations. They were a lot more entertaining. Once the movie was over, Lena had no idea what it was about, but she did know that Kara was incredibly cute.

“Did you like it?” Kara asked.

“Oh yeah,” Lena lied, “It was great.” She watched as Kara gave her a look that was a mix of sad and confused, and she froze.  _ Had Kara noticed the lie _ ? She was going to backtrack, but Kara just beamed at her and said,

“I’m glad! We can watch Episode 5 next time.” Lena smiled at the thought of a next time. Maybe she and Kara could do a weekly thing. Kara checked her phone and said, “It’s getting pretty late. I should get home, but I’ll see you at school on Monday.”

“Yes, of course,” Lena said. She was walking Kara to the door when one of the guards stopped them. He cleared his throat and said,

“Ms. Luthor, it is our recommendation that your friend stay the night. With the attacks that occurred last night, we believe it’s in her best interest.”

“Oh I don’t know,” Lena said. She turned to Kara and asked, “Um, would you like to stay the night?” She wouldn’t be opposed.

“Oh I think I should be okay out there,” Kara said, and Lena would have agreed had she not been worried about the attacker. If a vampire got one look at Kara while hungry they’d rip her to shreds.

“No really, I insist,” Lena said, “I’ve got some extra clothes. Really, it would ease my mind.”

“Okay, sure. Let me just call my Mom and tell her,” Kara said, and the guard gave them both a nod. Kara went to call her Mom, and Lena went to find a guest room, only to see that none of them had bedding. She guessed Kara would have to sleep in her room. The bed was big enough, they would be fine. When Kara came upstairs, Lena was pulling out some pajamas for her.

“Are these okay?” Lena asked.

“Yeah sure, thanks,” Kara said. She took the pajamas from that and asked, “Is there a bathroom I could use?” Lena nodded and pointed to it, “Thanks. Be right back.” Kara went into the bathroom, and Lena tried to arrange the pillows for two people. She was kind of stressing out right now. She’d never had a sleepover before. Did they actually sleep? Or did they just lay down and talk? At boarding school she’d had a roommate. That was a sleepover, right? And they’d just do homework then sleep. Kara came out of the bathroom, and Lena winced at how small her pajamas were on her. Though it did really show her how ripped Kara was. Field hockey was no joke.

“So are we both sleeping in here?” Kara asked.

“Uh yeah, we’ve only been here for a few days, so the guest rooms aren’t ready yet.”  _ Please don’t think I’m weird. _ Kara smiled and said,

“Cool, sounds good!”  _ Crisis averted, it seemed _ . “Is it okay if I take this side? I like, can’t go to sleep unless I’m on the right side.”

“Yeah sure,” Lena said. She preferred the left anyway, that was where her nightstand was. 

“Sweet!” Kara exclaimed before jumping on the bed. Lena held in a laugh. She didn’t think she could ever meet anyone cuter.

“I’ll go change then be right back,” she said. Kara nodded from her spot on the bed. Lena grabbed some pajamas from her dresser and went to change in the bathroom. When she came back, Kara was already asleep under the covers.  _ So much for talking _ . Lena didn’t mind though. It really was getting late, and she didn’t mind just laying down. She was going to flick the lights off when she saw that Kara’s glasses were still on her face. She decided to take them off for her and put them on the nightstand. She gently moved the glasses away from Kara’s face and saw that they were smudged. She went into the bathroom to wipe them off, and as she looked through them to inspect them, she noticed something. She pulled the glasses closer and realized that her vision looked the same, with or without them. 

“There’s no prescription in these,” she murmured to herself.  _ Why does Kara wear prescription-less glasses? _ Why would anyone? At first Lena thought she was thinking too much into it, and she probably wasn’t seeing anything because she was a vampire, but she used to wear glasses, and she could tell the difference. She’d only stopped because of the…

“Not possible,” Lena murmured to herself. Kara couldn’t be a vampire. She ate real food and enjoyed it, she played a sport which meant she could spend a long amount of time in the sun, and she was just an overall happy person. She couldn’t be the vampire who’d killed that man, it wasn’t possible. Lena wouldn’t believe it. She heard Kara move around, so she went back to the bed and placed the glasses on the table. She didn’t want Kara to see her messing around with them. If she was the other vampire, Lena didn’t want her to know she was suspicious. She flicked the lights off and quietly crawled into bed. Kara’s breaths were even and calm, and Lena could tell that she was actually asleep. Vampires didn’t really sleep, at least not that peacefully. And that was enough for Lena to believe that it wasn’t her. She laid down in the bed with her, and allowed herself to close her eyes to Kara’s peaceful breathing.

Kara walked up to the West House and knocked on the door. She’d had a fun night with Lena last night, but she had to cut their time together short in the morning so she could meet Iris. Iris was busy all afternoon so she’d asked Kara to meet her at 9. Iris opened the door, studied Kara, and said,

“You’re glowing. Fun night?” Kara frowned and said,

“No, nothing too exciting.” She stepped in the house and said, “I had a sleepover at Lena’s house though, if that’s what you mean.”

“Oh right, Barry was telling me about that. Was he right about the house being made of gold?”

“Not about the gold, but it was definitely an experience,” Kara said, “But enough about that. Let’s talk about the blog. Have you done more research?”

“I have,” Iris said, “I looked into the police report on the attack, and check this out.” Kara sat next to Iris at the table and looked at the file on the laptop screen, “If you looked at the body from afar you’d think it was just a messy attack, but if you dig deeper, you’d see that it was almost...planned.”

“Planned? How planned?” Kara asked.

“Look at the bite marks,” Iris said. She zoomed in on the picture, and Kara winced at how gory it was. She pushed down those feelings so she could focus on what Iris was talking about. “See, there’s a pattern in them right...there.” 

“I see what you mean,” Kara said. The cuts were perfectly aligned on the victims torso, as if they knew which spot would pull out the organs. It was almost like a human had done it. Or a wolf who had originally been a human.

“Can I take copies of these home with me?” she asked.

“Sure,” Iris said, “My theory is that it was a man who wanted to make it look like an animal attack. What do you think?”

“I agree,” Kara said. The only difference was that she believed the man or woman and the wolf were the same person.

“I’m gonna need your help. Your Mom is working in that fancy lab, right?”

“Yeah…” Kara said, not sure she liked where this was going.  
“I’m going to need you to do a run on this. Check which animal it is,” Iris said, handing Kara a small plastic bag. Kara nearly gagged at the contents. It looked like a tag of bloodied human skin, with bite marks all over it.

“Iris, how on earth…”

“My Dad is on the force, I get by,” Iris said, “Can you do it?”

“Sure, but I’m going to tell my Mom that it’s fake,” Kara said, taking the bag and pocketing it in her jacket pocket, “What else is there?”

“Right now, just this. My plans got moved up a few hours so I’m kinda in a rush. Tell me what you get from that, then we can do more.”

“Cool,” Kara said, “I’ll see what I can do with it and let you know.” She left Iris’s house soon after, then went home with the sample, really hoping there was no wolf DNA on it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to everyone who has been supporting this story! I'm gonna try to keep up with updating but I'm a little busier now with school so bear with me haha. Next chapter will see Kara analyzing the sample, and having her meeting with Sam. Lena will also be getting a bit more suspicious...


	7. New Housemate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kara learns some news from Sam

Lena entered the lab after school on Monday and was surprised to see Kara by the microscopes. She was never there before Lena came in. She walked up to her friend and said,

“Hey you.” Clearly that was a mistake, because Kara jumped when she saw her and said,

“Lena, you scared me!”

“My bad,” Lena said apologetically, hoping she hadn’t actually offended the other girl. Her nerves were calmed when Kara smiled at her and said,

“It’s not a big deal, I was just so focused that I didn’t see you there.”

“That’s alright, what’s got you so focused?” Lena asked, leaning over to the object Kara had on the slide.  _ She _ almost screamed when she saw it, “What is that?”

“Oh don’t freak out, it isn’t real. Fake blood and all,” Kara said, but Lena could hear her heart pounding, and not only that, she could smell the blood. There was no way it was fake. She could feel herself slipping back into her Saturday Night fears.  _ She’s not a vampire, she’s not a vampire _ , she repeated to herself. She couldn’t be, it wasn’t possible.

“Great,” Lena got out, “I was a little, um, a little worried for a second.”

“Haha, don’t be,” Kara said, “I’ll finish up here and then we can hang out. You can show me how to make s’mores, like you were saying!”

“Yeah sure,” Lena said, “Can I ask why you’re examining the...fake blood?”

“Oh, just for a Monsters thing for English.”  _ The class you sleep in, yeah right! _ Lena thought. Kara’s eyes were almost twitching, and her heartbeat remained at a panicked rate. There was absolutely no way she was telling the truth.

“What kind of monster?” Lena asked in an attempt to get the truth out of her.

“You know like, a scary one?” Kara pretty much asked. This was torture. Kara couldn’t be the vampire, she lied terribly. Yet she was still  _ doing it _ . Why do that? Lena needed to know. She hated to do this, but if she didn’t know, she never would.

“Kara,” Lena said as gently as possible, placing a hand on the girl’s shoulder. She looked at her with trusting eyes. Doing this was going to hurt, but she needed to do it.

“Yes?” Kara asked.

“What are you working on?” she asked. She looked her right in the eye, just like with the man on her first night here. Kara would have to tell her the truth now. There was no other way. Kara looked a little disoriented after the compulsion, but she was soon able to open her mouth and say,

“I told you. Monsters project. It’s due tomorrow, so I gotta do it now.”  _ She was still lying! _ “I think I need a cover slide, I’ll be right back.” She quickly ran off, and Lena was left feeling worse than ever, because she knew that there was only one creature that couldn’t be turned by a vampire. And that was another vampire. Lena wasn’t sure what exactly she needed to do next, but she knew it would involve a lot of research.

Kara had been able to analyze the sample, but she had to wait a few days until she got a conclusive report. She was fine with waiting, and just hoped that the wolf wouldn’t attack someone else until then. It was nearing her day to meet Sam, and Kara was nervous. Barry couldn’t come because of a mandatory family dinner, and even though Kara had said she wouldn’t meet Sam until 11, he said it would be going until at least midnight. He was probably just scared. Kara was sliding into her sister’s sneakers while listening to her Mom downstairs. She had a late night talk show on and would most likely fall asleep to it. Kara could slip out, and Mom would never know. When she was done with her shoes, she stuck her head out of her room and said,

“Mom, I’m going to bed!”

“Okay sweetheart, goodnight!” her Mom called back. That would get her not to check on her for the night. She shut her bedroom door, slid her jacket on, then opened her window as quietly as possible. She attempted to be sneaky as she slipped out, but she lost her footing on the tree branch and ended up falling very ungracefully onto the grass below.

“Ow,” she said. She stood up and dusted her jeans off, glad the noise hadn’t alerted her Mother. She used her eyes to see in the dark, glad she was able to see in the dark. It was a huge upgrade from the night where she’d been bitten. She’d been so afraid that night, alone in the dark. Her favorite advantage to werewolfism was her sight. The hearing was just annoying, but she hadn’t found one disadvantage to being able to see at night. It made everything so much easier. She entered the familiar woods, and as she came closer to where Sam wanted to meet, she noticed a distinct smell. Was that what a wolf smelled like. It seemed so, because she soon realized Sam had been looking for her the same way.

“There you are,” Sam said, “I got a little lost, so I was tracking you. Pretty cool, right?”

“Yeah,” Kara said, actually meaning it, “So, that proof you promised?”

“Oh right,” Sam said, “Here you go.” She pulled a stack of pictures out of her jacket pocket, and Kara got a look at them. It was a group of men with...were those crossbows?

“This is it?” Kara asked. Sam nodded,

“Did you see the pictures? You can clearly see the weapons.”

“I mean, yeah. But how can you be sure that they’re hunters?” Kara asked, “For all we know, they’re some kind of medieval cosplay group or something.”

“Really? You believe that over wolf hunters?” Kara shrugged and said,

“National City doesn’t have wolves. Why would we have wolf hunters?”

“Did you really say that we don’t have wolves...when you’re a werewolf?” Sam asked.

“I meant  _ actual _ wolves, not shapeshifters,” Kara said.

“It’s all the same to them,” Sam said, “If you have the capabilities to turn into a beast, they’re gonna want to take you out.” Kara grew cold at Sam’s grim tone. She was serious about this.

“So...how do we get rid of them?” Kara asked.

“We don’t. We just have to stick together,” Sam said, “A wolf in a pack has a way better chance of surviving than a wolf on their own.”

“There are two of us,” Kara said, “That’s hardly better than one.”

“Maybe not, but it’s something. Plus, we could find people to turn. Our mystery wolf found you.”

“We can turn people?” Kara asked, thinking of Barry. Sam nodded, “That doesn’t make any sense. I bit a friend of mine during my first transformation, and he didn’t turn.”

“Well you can’t just turn anybody, only special people like you and me can be turned.”

“Special?” Kara asked, “What do you mean special?”

“You know,” Sam said, “People with werewolves for parents.”

“Excuse me?” Kara asked. Sam frowned,

“You didn’t know. Both my parents were werewolves, but they were hunted when I was five, so I went into foster care after that. They were going to turn me when I was ready, but once they were gone, I got turned unwillingly by your special friend.”

“That makes no sense. My parents aren’t werewolves. At least my Mom isn’t.”

“You only need one parent,” Sam said, “What about your Dad?”

“I don’t know,” Kara admitted, “He died when I was really young coming home from work. If he was a wolf...I guess I wouldn’t know.”

“You should look into that,” Sam said, “Because that could be the first step into finding out who bit you. Maybe that wolf and your Dad were in the same pack.”

“Yeah, maybe,” Kara said. She was still reeling from Sam’s news that she honestly wasn’t paying much attention to what she was saying right now. She was going on about hunters and pack mentality and sticking together, but all Kara could think about was her Dad. Her Dad who she barely remembered. Did he turn into a wolf on full moons?

“And not to mention full moon transformations out in the open,” Sam was saying, which snapped Kara back to reality.

“Sorry, what?” Kara asked.

“Full moon transformations. You won’t get to do it in a basement forever. When you’re in a pack, it’ll be easier to outrun hunters,” Sam said.

“Yeah, right,” Kara said, “Um, how do you usually do yours?”

“Anywhere I can get some privacy,” Sam said, “It can be tricky sometimes, finding the right spot. There were some warehouses in the town I came from, but the cops started to get suspicious about the monthly vandalism. The best place to do it would be the woods, but if there are hunters…”

“Yeah yeah, they’ll come find us,” Kara said. She sighed and said, “Anything else I need to know?” Sam shrugged and said,

“That was all I had for you. You believe me about the hunters, right?”

“Sure,” Kara said. She didn’t have much of a reason not to, Sam had seemed pretty serious about it before, “When’s the next time we’ll be seeing each other?”

“Soon I hope,” Sam said, “When are you out of school every day?”

“I’m usually done at three thirty, but I go to work with my Mom until 6. And on Monday night it’s the first field hockey game of the season. I gotta be there.”

“A sports game? You can’t play in a sports game!” Sam exclaimed.

“Why not?” Kara asked.

“It’s a competition. A wolf is a predator. The most primal instinct of any predator is to take out their competition. You could really hurt someone!”

“I’ll be fine,” Kara said, “I’ve had practice, and I’ve kept my control then.”

“Practice is different,” Sam said, “That’s your own team, you don’t have to beat anybody.”  _ Not true, _ Kara thought, thinking about Veronica, “Will you promise me you won’t play?”

“No,” Kara said, “I’m junior captain, I have to be there.”

“You’re not being smart,” Sam said.

“I’m going to be fine,” Kara said, “And I’m not arguing about this with you, I’m going.”

“You’re going to expose yourself if you do this,” Sam said, “The hunters will be led right to you, and then what’ll you do?”

“Nothing because that’s not going to happen,” Kara said. Sick of talking about field hockey, she changed to subject back to trying to find a meeting time, “What about next weekend? We can meet here again, then talk about trying to find other wolves or something.”

“Other wolves?” Sam asked.

“Didn’t you come here to find a pack?” Kara asked.

“I came here to find whoever bit you, because I have enough reason to believe they bit me too, and since it was against my will, I’d like to know why,” Sam said, “I’ve been following this guy ever since I was turned, and you’re the first wolf he’s turned since. That makes me interested.”

“Why me?” Kara asked, “What makes me so special?”

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out,” Sam said, “My initial guess was well known werewolf parents, but that clearly isn’t the case.”

“So what are you thinking now?” Kara asked.

“I don’t know,” Sam said, “Just that it’s something.” There was a rumble of thunder after Sam said that, and Kara looked up to see big clouds coming over the moon. It would storm soon.

“I need to go home,” she told Sam, “I’ll meet you a week from tomorrow, here. You let me know if you find anything.”

“I think you should be the one going out looking,” Sam said, “Because my guess is this is something only you can find out.”

“Yeah, I’ll look into it,” Kara said. Sam nodded and said,

“Good. You should be getting home soon, I’ll see you here in a week.” There was another loud clap of thunder after that, and Kara soon felt a drizzle. It was going to rain soon. As she watched Sam turn to venture into the woods, she knew that the other girl had no other place to go. This was probably against her better judgement, but Kara still called out,

“Sam!” The other girl turned around, and Kara continued with, “My sister moved away to college last month, so we have an extra room. I don’t want you to be out here in the rain.” She was going to be in trouble for sneaking out, but it would be worth it if it meant Sam didn’t have to sleep in the rain.

“Are you sure?” Sam asked, “I don’t want to impose-”

“Really, I don’t mind,” Kara said, “Come on, I’ll introduce you to my Mom as a friend from school with nowhere else to go. She won’t ask too many questions after that.”

“I mean, if she really won’t mind…” Sam said, “Then okay.”

“Cool, c’mon, it’s not that far a walk,” Kara said. She led Sam out of the woods and headed towards her neighborhood. She entered the house through the front door, startling her Mom who was just about to fall asleep in front of the TV.

“Kara Danvers, you told me you were going to bed!” she snapped at her daughter.

“I know, I know,” Kara said, “Something came up with a friend from school, and I wanted to help her.” She moved out of the way so Sam could come in, “This is Sam. I was wondering if she could stay the night.” In a lower tone she added, “She’s got nowhere else.” Eliza’s face softened at the sight of Sam in her ripped clothes with mud on her face. She walked up to the girl and said,

“Of course you can stay the night, sweetheart. I’ll get you some towels and you can wash up.” She placed her hands on Sam’s shoulders and told her where she could put her shoes while Kara closed the door behind them. She was gonna follow them upstairs when her Mom stopped her.

“What?” she asked. 

“Wait down here, I need to talk to you,” Mom said. 

“Oh, okay,” Kara said. Her Mom walked with Sam upstairs while Kara hopped on the couch and busied herself into the  _ Jerry Springer _ rerun on TV. It would keep her entertained for at least a little while.

Lena was sitting at her desk and doing homework-well, homework as a cover while she looked up Kara’s game statistics on the school website-when she heard the guards standing outside her room talk with her Mother.

“Of course Mrs. Luthor,” one of them said, and Lena heard the door open.  _ Crap. _ She shut out of the website on the monitor and went back to her textbook.

“Are you studying?” Mother asked, and Lena nodded quickly, “Well this won’t take long. I’m limiting your time at the lab.” Lena frowned.

“Why? I thought I was doing good work there!”

“You were, but I’ll need you coming to meetings with me from now on. There are two different men on the board who are dying to meet you…”

“But what about-”

“Don’t interrupt me!” Mother shouted harshly, cutting her off, “You’ll start attending the board meetings with me tomorrow. No exceptions.”

“But it’s Saturday-”

“What did I just say?!” Mother snapped back. Lena shrunk and said,

“Sorry Mother. What time do we have to leave?” 

“Nine AM. Sharp!” Lillian commanded before stalking out of the room. One of the guards gave Lena an apologetic smile before closing the door to let her continue her “work.” She pulled Kara’s stats back up and went to her notebook. She was checking for any abnormalities compared to her other team mates, but they were nothing short of just a good athlete. She scored a good amount, but not much more than the captain, Veronica Sinclair. If Kara was the other vampire in town, that would mean she had the same enhanced senses Lena had. Nothing in her stats suggested that, so maybe she was human. That, or she was really good at hiding her powers. But she wouldn’t be able to hide them in front of Lena. She checked the schedule on the website. Next game was Wednesday night at 8. She was going to be there, and then she’d be able to see if she was right.

Kara was nearly half asleep by the time her Mom came back downstairs. She could hear the shower running upstairs, and watched as her Mom shut the TV off.

“You shouldn’t be watching that,” Eliza said.

“Hey, you left it on,” Kara said. Her Mom shook her head and said,

“That mouth of yours will get you into trouble one day.”

“But you said I should always speak my mind.”

“There are limits to that, Kara, but that’s not what I’m here to talk about. I wanted to talk to you about your friend, Sam.”

“Yeah, I figured,” Kara said, “Can she stay? She really has nowhere to go.”

“I’m fine with her staying for now, but I really think we need to go to child services. Someone that young can’t be out on their own.”

“We can’t!” Kara exclaimed. She  _ needed _ Sam. She was the only one who could help her with what she was going through, “If we call CPS, they could take her away! And I need her here, she’s one of my closest friends!”

“Closest friends? Kara, I’ve never heard of this girl before tonight!”

“Yeah well that’s because...because um, we’re team friends! Yeah, she started playing on the field hockey team just a few weeks ago. We got close fast though.”

“Kara, I really think-”

“Mom,  _ please _ ,” Kara said, “Just give me and Sam a few weeks. If we can’t...find her parents, then we can call CPS.” Eliza sighed and said,

“Fine, you get six weeks. Then I’m calling.” Kara nodded. Six weeks was over a month, which would give her more than enough time to get Sam a place to stay.

“Can I go and talk to her?”

“In a minute,” Eliza said, “We need to talk about you sneaking out. That can’t keep happening, I need to know where you are.”

“You’re right, and I’m sorry,” Kara said. 

“Which is why, I got this,” Eliza said. She opened her purse and pulled out a phone, “No more using mine. Seriously, the texts from Barry and Lena are becoming a lot.”

“Wait, really? Thanks Mom!” Kara exclaimed. She took the phone from her and said, “And it’s the newest model too!”

“Yep. Which is why it has the best tracking technology.” Kara’s face fell,

“Tracking?” Eliza nodded,

“You are not allowed out of the house without that phone. When I feel like I can trust you again, I’ll turn it off.” Kara sighed and asked,

“Isn’t that a little extreme?”

“Not in my book,” Eliza said, “Go on upstairs, it’s late. I’ll be taking you and Sam to school tomorrow at 7.”  _ Oh right. School. _

“Sure. Goodnight Mom.”

“Goodnight baby.” Kara went upstairs, turning the phone on as she walked. Luckily for her, her Mom had gotten the new phone set up. The first thing she did was text Lena.

“Hey Lena, it’s Kara! I’m back with my own phone so this is my number now :)” Lena responded a few moments later with,

“Oh cool! Hello Kara. Quick question, can I come to your game on Wednesday? I would love to see you play!” Kara smiled and said,

“Sure, it starts at 8. See you there!” She shut the phone off and went into Alex’s room, where Sam was putting on an old pair of her sister’s pajamas.

“Do those fit alright?” Kara asked.

“Yeah, s’all good,” Sam said, “So, what’s the plan for tomorrow?”

“Plan?”

“For when your Mom takes us to school.”  _ Oh right. Super ears. _

“Well, we’re gonna go there and enroll you,” Kara said, “And then you’re joining my field hockey team. Mom thinks we met there.”

“Field hockey? Kara,  _ you’re _ not supposed to be playing field hockey!”

“Well I am, and now you need to play too or my Mom is gonna find out we’re lying,” Kara said, “We need a sub anyway. You won’t even have to play.” 

“Kara, this is a bad idea. Playing a game with wolf powers-”

“Yeah yeah, I heard what you said, and I told you, I can handle myself. Look, Mom gave us six weeks. We have until then to find out what’s going on with my Dad, for me to find out who bit me, and for you to find a permanent place to stay.”

“Well that’s a lot,” Sam said, “But at least we have a checklist.”

“Yeah, and that’s about it,” Kara said, “I’m going to bed. I’ll come to get you at six thirty. We can work out what we’re gonna say to the Principal.”

“Sounds like a plan, but Kara, I really think you should reconsider playing in your next game. If you get exposed-”

“I won’t get exposed,” Kara said. Sam was starting to sound like a broken record! “You can come to my practices and watch me. Well, you’re gonna have to come anyway to be on the team. You will see that there is  _ nothing _ to worry about.”

“Like I said, you’re gonna think differently during a competition.” 

“And like  _ I _ said, I’m going to bed,” Kara said, “Goodnight, Sam.”

“Goodnight,” Sam said, “Is there a uniform I’m supposed to have for this field hockey thing?”

“They’ll lend you something at school if you make the team,” Kara said, “And if not, I’ve got some extra things in my closet.”

“Cool,” Sam said, jumping on the bed, “See you tomorrow!”

“See ya,” Kara said. She left the room and went to her own, flopping back on the bed. Tomorrow was about to be a long day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys liked this chapter! Next one will have more Lena :)

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone! I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. Next chapter will see Kara and Lena meet for the first time :)


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